Pair ‘attacked tailor with scissors and stole bag containing Dh500,000’

Cousin had given tailor money as he did not want to have it in his possession as he parked his car, a Dubai court heard.

DUBAI // Two men accused of attacking a tailor with scissors and snatching a bag containing more than half a million dirhams from him appeared at Dubai Criminal Court on Thursday.

The tailor said the bag of money had come from his cousin on November 24 last year.

“My cousin called me and said he came from Abu Dhabi with money to buy some devices for the electronics shop he works for and asked me to hold on to the cash until he parked the car,” said the 36-year-old Bangladeshi tailor.

He said that as he placed the bag on the table next to him two men barged into his shop in Naif and waved scissors in his face. One of the men snatched the money bag and ran, while the other was restrained, said the tailor.

The electronic shop employee, a 35-year-old Bangladeshi, told prosecutors that he was on a work task to buy mobile phones for his shop and had Dh563,000 with him for that purpose.

“When I arrived in Naif I didn’t want to keep the bag next to me in the car while I parked, so I called my cousin to pick it up until I parked,” he said. “I thought the cash would be safer with him.”

Police were contacted and footage from the surveillance camera helped identify the second defendant.

“The defendant restrained by the tailor confessed to us and informed us of the flat where the second defendant was hiding,” said a police officer, 37.

The second defendant was arrested in a flat in Al Nahda, Sharjah.

The Nigerian defendants, aged 28 and 31, allegedly told police they saw the cousin hand the tailor the bag and they believed it to contain money so they decided to attack him and steal the bag.

In court yesterday, the two men denied a theft charge. A verdict is expected on May 22.