Four incarcerated for robbing illegal hawkers

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

DUBAI: Four countrymen who ganged up to conduct a bogus CID raid on unlicenced mobile phones hawkers have failed to challenge their punishment at the Dubai Appeals Court.

The Asian sales manager, sales agent, and two unemployed accomplices (aged 19-32) mugged a Pakistani visitor and a compatriot accountant whom they spotted hawking phones among pedestrians.

They posed as CID detectives. The manager battered the accountant. They decamped with two iPhones worth Dhs8, 950 and Dhs900 cash. This happened at a street in Al Rifa’a around midnight on Jul.19.2018.

The Dubai Criminal Court sentenced them with one year jail plus deportation. They denied and contended they purchased both phones from both but both framed them following a misunderstanding.

They also denied other charges and appealed seeking to challenge the ruling. Prosecutors said they earlier confessed and revealed they were walking in the area when they spotted both hawking phones.

They cornered them. The manager threatened them they were breaking the law by selling phones without a licence. He pushed each one and they got scared. He and others grabbed the phones and fled.

Police arrested them and recovered both iPhones from them. Both victims identified the quartet during a parade at Al Rifa’a Police Station. The Dubai Appeals Court has upheld the lower court’s decision.

On the record, the visitor and the accountant were at a side street hawking mobile phones when a car arrived. Three men stepped out speaking Arabic, claiming they were from the CID.

One of them flashed an ID and said the victims were wanted by the police. “They ordered us to enter the car. They then demanded us to handover our phones, cards and wallets.

“I handed over my phone and visa copy. A man sitting next to me snatched my wallet. They pulled over and ordered us to get out. We realised they were not policemen,” said the visitor.

“The accountant seized one of them to foil their escape. The car driver jumped out and rushed to the side where the accountant was, pushed him and slapped him in the face. They sped off with our belongings.”

The accountant gave a similar complaint during prosecution investigations. An Emirati corporal said the victims provided the car’s number. Criminal pursuit teams located the car and arrested the gang.

They initially contended they purchased the phones from the victims. Then, a senior police officer confronted them and they confessed to the robbery and impersonation charges.