Duo jailed for robbing phones worth Dh264,000

Dubai - The officer also said the three men were caught on the shop's CCTV at the time of the robbery.

Two Afghani men were sentenced to two years each in jail, followed by deportation, on Sunday for breaking into a general trading company's store and robbing Dh284,344 worth of mobile phones and tablets.
The two unemployed men, aged 32 and 26, earlier denied the charge of robbery at the Court of First Instance. Two other men are believed to have been involved in the theft on August 13, 2014, in the Naif area. They are still at large.
"Around 10am, I reached the shop in Freej Al Murar , Naif, and found that the facade was half-opened and four locks were missing," a 26-year-old Indian salesman said, adding that they found out that 24 boxes containing 273 smart phones, in addition to 4 other boxes containing 17 tablets, were stolen.
The salesman said that the stolen goods were worth Dh244,344.
"We arrested the two men after we received a report about a robbery of a shop in Naif," a police lieutenant said.
"We were tipped-off that they were involved in the robbery together with a runaway accomplice. They admitted they gave the goods to a Pakistani man who sold them in Sharjah. They split the money among each other," he added.
The officer also said the three men were caught on the shop's CCTV at the time of the robbery. They were seen putting the phones in bags.
One of them has a criminal record.
"In a previous robbery case, his partners tricked the 26-year-old accused and did not give him his share of money so he tried to kill himself. He was then charged with that," another policeman told the prosecutor.
The verdict remains subject to appeal.
- mary@khaleejtimes.com