DUBAI // A policeman was caught stealing money from crime suspects when he stole from an undercover officer, a court has heard.
The thefts came to light when the Yemeni defendant allegedly stole Dh100 from a fellow officer who was working undercover to help arrest a gang of bootleggers in November last year.
The 24-year-old denied a charge of theft when he appeared at Dubai Criminal Court.
“His duties include body searches of apprehended suspects then sending them to the police station and, on one occasion, one of the suspects was in fact an undercover police officer who reported the defendant for stealing Dh100 from him and from other suspects,” said an Emirati police officer, 39.
He said the incident happened at 9pm on November 21 last year, when police arrested several men working in bootlegging.
“We had taken pictures of the money that was given to the undercover policeman and, when he told us the defendant stole from him, we found the missing Dh100 note with the defendant,” the officer said.
He said he questioned the defendant who confessed that he had been doing the same thing with other arrested suspects for a while.
“He told me this was not the first time and that, just recently, he stole from three men arrested for entering the country illegally,” the officer said.
The next hearing will be on January 29.
salamir@thenational.ae
