ABU DHABI // A woman who attempted to rob a money exchange shop in the capital with a toy gun told the Criminal Court on Monday that she did it to pay back mounting debts.
She said she came up with the plan on the day of the incident last month and bought an abaya, black face veil and a Dh25 toy gun from a grocery store.
“I put a black cover on my face and on my gun so people could not identify it and find out what it really was,” she said.
She said she wore a white headscarf and black gloves to disguise herself from CCTV cameras and to cover her fingerprints.
She confessed threatening to kill the exchange staff if they refused to give her the cash, and to residing in the country illegally.
Her residency visa expired last year.
Chief justice Idris bin Mansour asked the accused about CCTV footage which showed her going in and out of the shop more than once.
She explained she went out the first time because she got cold feet, but then encouraged herself and went back inside to commit her crime.
When she was arrested, police found a knife inside her purse that she said she planned to use to defend herself in case her plot failed.
The case was adjourned until April 21 to present the evidence to the forensic lab.
hdajani@thenational.ae