Dh1.7 million robbed at knife-point from Dubai shop

Six men allegedly robbed Dh1.7 million from a mobile phone shop at knife-point in Dubai’s Naif area, the Dubai Criminal Court heard.

Five others including a woman have been charged with helping the accused, providing shelter to some of them and possessing stolen money.

Five of the accused were Russians, other four Georgians, an Uzbek and a Kazakhstani and were between 23 to 40 years  old.

According to the records, on November 6, at around 2.45pm, clerk NH, 50, was on the ground floor of a mobile phone and accessories shop and his two co-workers were upstairs when four men entered the shop, robbed Dh1.7 million and ran away.

“Four men entered the shop and one them asked about my co-worker Ahmad. When I told him that he is not in, he asked me to transfer to Russia Dh5 million that he claimed he was carrying in a bag,” NH told investigators.

When the clerk told the man that the company does not deal in money transfers and picked up the phone to call Ahmad, the latter cut off the telephone’s wire with a knife that he pulled out from his waist. The attacker then pointed the knife at the clerk’s neck, ordering not to scream or he would be killed.

The attacker ordered the clerk to open the safe that was under his desk. He stole Dh15,000 that was in it and asked him to give them other amounts. When the clerk said there was no more money, the attacker with his accomplice assaulted him and pushed him into a small room in the shop and tied up his hands and legs.

In this room, they saw another safe. They went upstairs where they took Dh1.1 million from the drawers. They pushed  down AA, 37, salesman, who was upstairs at knife-point. His co-worker escaped as he was hiding.

The attackers asked AA to open the safe that was in the small room. They stole about Dh500,000 to Dh600,000 that was in the safe.

While the attackers were emptying the safe, a customer entered the shop. They immediately caught him and tied up his hands and legs and pushed him into the small room together with the two shop workers. The worker upstairs rushed down and released the men after the attackers fled the scene.

Another theft in front of the shop

While the attackers were emptying the shop’s safes, someone called the police and reported the theft of mobile phones from a car. A police patrol was rushed to the scene and the informer asked to stay away from the car to save the finger prints.

First Seargent Ibrahim Hassan searched  the area for cameras outside shops that may have filmed the thieves.

“I went to a nearby mobile phone shop to check if they had cameras that may have captured the thieves. When I entered the shop, I saw a man and asked him about cameras. He looked a Russian and he answered me in English saying that he is a customer.

“I saw an office at the end of the shop. When I was walking into the office, two men with long hair and wearing sunglasses got out and assaulted me. I sustained a wound in the back of my neck and bleeding from the nose, I fell unconscious. After two minutes I woke up and saw four men near the shop’s door trying to open it. While I was trying to pull my gun, they managed to open the door and flee,” testified the officer.

At that time, while his colleague policeman Abdullah Al Hosani was waiting for him near the car, he saw a Russian coming out of the mobile phone shop.

“I ran after him, he turned back to the shop, opened the door in my face and closed quickly. I knew that my colleague was inside the same shop. I wanted to know what was going on inside. Looking through the glass, I saw men trying to open the door.  I held the door trying to prevent them from leaving the shop but they were stronger than me. They opened the door and before I could stop point a gun to stop them, they pushed me and hit me with their hands, legs and wooden bars,” testified the policeman.

The attackers wounded his neck with a knife and tore off his uniform. Police were rushed to the scene and investigating the crime, gloves and some clothes used by the attackers was found in front of Hyyat Regency hotel. Police found out that one of the attackers had changed his clothes with those he had bought from a shop and left his old clothes in it.

Police arrested one of the suspects, BJ, 26, a painter in Sharjah.BJ told investigators that JK, 40, Kazakhstani had suggested robbing the shop which deals with illegal money and estimated that Dh20 million is kept in the shop where there are only two or three staffers.

The painter agreed with RK, 31, Russian and MH, 38, Uzbek, on robbing the shop and for the operation they arranged visit visas to two Georgians GK and GM.

Police recovered part of the robbed money while the rest had already been transferred.

When they appeared before the court, the main accused and three others admitted to entering and threatening the shop’s worker but denied stealing any money.

Police confiscated Dh27,000 from the Russian woman, TK, 36, visitor’s house in the Gardens. She admitted before the police that she had already transferred Dh365,000 (which the police retrieved) and confiscated other Dh100,000 which she had kept with a friend, according to the records.

TK, who is accused of possessing stolen money, pleaded not guilty when she appeared before the court and said that she did not know the source of the money that she was asked to keep in her custody by her compatriot MG, 23, visitor. MG in turn denied that he knew about the source of the money that had been kept in his custody.

The woman’s lawyer asked the court to release her on bail on humanitarian grounds as she has five children, the eldest being 15, who are currently living with a friend. The five children stood before the jury as proof of the claim. When asked about their father, she told the court that her husband is currently serving a sentence of ten years in prison after being found guilty of theft of  Dh21 million two years ago.

The Court will reconvene on June 4
 

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