Cop steals ID, makes calls for Dh87,000

Two Emirati brothers allegedly played a trick to take someone else’s ID card left at a petrol station as guarantee for settling a bill, and used the ID card to obtain five SIM cards and made international phone calls for Dh87,000.

MS, 26, policeman, and his brother AS, 24, unemployed, are charged with stealing KA’s ID card from a petrol station by claiming to be card’s rightful owners and paying the pending petrol bill. They then used the ID card to get SIM cards from Etisalat.

KA testified that in March last year, he had finished his night shift at around 6.30am. On his way back home, he stopped at Abu Kadra petrol station on Dubai-Ali Ain Road and filled up his car.

As he did not have cash, he tried to withdraw cash from the ATM at the station, but the ATM was not working. He was asked to leave his ID card at the petrol station until the bill was paid.

“I was given a receipt for handing over my ID and was told that I should bring the receipt to collect my ID after paying the petrol bill. On the next day, I went to the petrol station to pay the bill and collect my ID, but was shocked to learn that my ID had already been collected.

“I told the staff that I had not yet come to collect my ID and the receipt was still with me. The staff reviewed the camera footage which showed that two men had come and collected my ID. The camera footage showed their car’s number.

“I took a copy of the CD and lodged a complaint with Bur Dubai Police station and handed them the CD. Police thought that it was just a minor mistake and told me that they will call those who collected my ID.

“Police neglected my complaint for two months until I complained again about receiving a bill of Dh87,000 for a telephone number I did not have. I had my mobile phone disconnected. Checking with Etisalat, I was told that I had to pay Dh87,000 as bill for telephone numbers I never used.
“I complained to the police, saying that those who had collected my ID card had managed to obtain SIM cards and use them to make overseas calls and credit transfers.

“At the police station, I found out that the CD I had handed over was missing. I approach the petrol station to get another copy of the CD but in vain as more than one month had passed since the incident. And the employee who gave my ID to the accused had been transferred to another place.

“In 2013, I came to know that police had arrested the two accused and I found out that one of them worked for Dubai Police. When I met the policeman in detention, he requested me forgive him and drop the case as he had done this to call his pregnant Lebanese wife every day,” testified the victim.

The accused admitted to impersonating the victim when he collected the ID from the petrol station. His brother, who accompanied him, stayed in the car. After collecting the ID, they approached Etisalat branches and obtained five SIM cards.

AS used to impersonate the victim for obtaining the SIM cards in return for Dh500 from his elder brother.

The Court will reconvene on October 28.
 

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