Driver denies stealing truck-starting device

A man denied stealing a device that is used to start a truck.

DUBAI // A driver denied in court this morning that he stole a device that is used to start a truck's engine.

TB, 30, of Pakistan, told the presiding Judge Fahmy Mounir Fahmy at the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance today that he had nothing to do with the theft.

Prosecutors charged TB with theft using a weapon. He allegedly used a screw driver and a knife to cut the wires linking the device to the truck. Prosecutors said he had help from another man who has not been arrested.

The stolen device, which is worth about Dh10,000 according to prosecutors, was installed on a truck owned by Linkage International Shipping Company. The truck was parked in Al Aweer.

PR, a 42-year-old Indian truck driver, told prosecutors that when he returned to his truck on the morning of September 8 last year, it didn't start. He said he tried to start the engine several times, then went to check the starting device but found it missing. He then called police.

Three more drivers told police that the same devices were stolen from their trucks, also.

The arresting police officer HM told prosecutors that a corporal at the Criminal Investigation Section at Al Rashidiya police station assigned him to conduct an undercover sting operation on the defendant.

The officer said he was given the defendant's mobile number, and contacted him in order to meet him and buy the device from him, according to prosecutors.

When HM went to the defendant's garage, he saw TB getting into a car, and arrested him. He said he found four devices in the car as well as a knife and two screw drivers that were used in the thefts, prosecutors said.

HM said that during police investigations, TB confessed to stealing the devices, according to prosecutors.

A verdict is expected on May 4.