Porter jailed for stealing phone

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Criminal Court sentenced a porter to six months in jail to be followed by deportation and fined him Dhs5,000 on charges of stealing a mobile phone from a passenger’s suitcase. The ruling was upheld by the Court of Appeal.

The case dated back to last June when a Dubai Airport porter was caught during an inspection campaign while watching videos on a mobile phone during office hours.

According to his statement in the investigations, a policeman said he enquired from the porter if he owned the mobile phone he was using during the inspection campaign. The porter confessed that he took the mobile phone from the suitcase of a passenger leaving the country. The porter was referred to the public prosecution.

On interrogation, the porter admitted that he managed to open the suitcase belonging to a passenger leaving the country, which was not tightly closed, adding that he stole the mobile phone and hid it in his clothes. He later bought another SIM card for using the mobile phone during office hours and left it inside when he left from the inspection gates.