Neatly tricked into handing over his wallet

An Ethiopian national is in the dock for allegedly tricking a Pakistani man into handing over his wallet over and then stealing the money in it.

The incident dates back to April 29, when the Pakistani national IHM, a driver by profession, was walking on Al Manama Street in Al Awir to the Al Ittihad Cooperative Society at around 4.30pm.

As he walked along, a car pulled up and its driver offered him a lift to his destination for Dh2. Although he refused, insistence by the car's driver - later identified as 37-year-old Ethiopian visitor DSR - made him accept the offer.

According to his testimony, IHM found three other African nationals in the car. He sat with two of them in the back seat.

The driver, who took a deviation through a sandy patch, explained that he would first drop the man in the front seat before taking IHM to his destination.

Around this time, one of the men in the back seat removed some money already in the storage compartment near the handbrake and hid it under his foot and signalled IHM to stay silent.

The occupant of the front seat who subsequently got down from the car dramatically searched for money he ‘lost’ and began accusing rest of the occupants of stealing.

In the argument that followed, everyone was asked to open their wallets.

After checking IHM’s wallet, that contained Dh2,000, the man pushed him away. The driver dropped the wallet with only Dh50, in IHM’s shirt pocket before all of them sped away.

Having noted down the car's number, IHM lodged a complaint with the police who managed to track down the vehicle that belonged to a Sharjah-based car rental firm.

During an identification parade, IHM identified DSR while the others are still at large.

The case awaits verdict on August 31.