Man jailed and fined Dhs12.5m for burning workshop in Dubai

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Criminal Court sentenced an Asian worker to one year in prison and fined him Dhs12.5 million, to be followed by deportation on the charge of setting fire to a workshop for which he worked.

The contents that were gutted inside the charred workshop included nine vehicles, tools and equipment estimated at Dhs300,000. However, the flames extended to the adjacent factory, causing damages estimated at Dhs12.3 million, the Court heard.

Earlier, in last August, a workshop owner filed a complaint with the police stating that his workplace had been ruined and set on fire by a compatriot worker. He stated that the worker abruptly stormed his office and threatened to set fire to the workshop unless he completed his residency and work permit procedures.

The worker was holding a knife in his hand, when he was threatening the owner of the workshop, as he ordered him to stay inside the office and not to leave it. After a while, another worker rushed to the owner’s office, informing him that accused had brought a 4-litre-bottle containing flammable material, which he splattered on the vehicles inside the workshop, and run away.

The security teams were able to arrest the worker, who admitted his crime, in retaliation against the owner of the workshop, because he deliberately procrastinated completing the residency and work permit procedures for him.

Separately, the Dubai Criminal Court sentenced a security guard of a company and his accomplice to three months in jail to be followed by deportation and fined them Dhs97,000 for abusing his power as a security guard and making it easy for others to steal sugar and raw materials worth Dhs97,000.

The defendant agreed with Asians to cover the surveillance cameras inside the company’s warehouse in Dubai Investments Park against Dhs5,000.

The case dated back to last October when a manager of the company filed a complaint in which he stated that the company’s security guard and unanimous people were involved in a theft.

The complainant added in the interrogations that the following day of the incident, he discovered that 240 cartons of sugar and other raw materials had been stolen.

After checking the surveillance cameras, he saw the security guard covering some cameras inside the warehouse without noticing that there was another surveillance camera, the manager added.

The video tapes showed the security guard opening the door of the warehouse and helping others load two cartons into their truck, he said, adding that he called the police and handed the video tapes over to them. The security guard was summoned accordingly.