Six jobless men on trial over Dh40,000 villa burglary

The Sri Lankans are accused of stealing 34 items of jewellery from an Emirati's villa in Dubai.

DUBAI // An Emirati engineer took his wife and children out for a day and returned home to find more than Dh40,000 worth of his wife’s jewellery missing, Dubai Criminal Court heard on Thursday.

The 37-year-old told prosecutors that at about 4pm on November 21 last year, he left his villa in Al Quoz and returned at about 11pm to find the gate forced open.

He went to the bedroom and found an iron safe, where his wife kept her jewellery, on the floor, forced open and empty.

He wrote down a list of 34 pieces worth more than Dh40,000 that had been stolen before calling police.

After investigations, police said that six jobless Sri Lankan men were linked to the crime and they were all arrested on January 18.

“During questioning they all confessed and said that a 39-year-old countryman was the mastermind behind the theft and that he picked the villa, then put up a plan,” testified an Emirati police officer, 25.

He said that the men confessed to breaking the lock of the kitchen door and the bedroom door before forcing open the safe and getting away with the valuables.

None of the items were recovered.

In court, the defendants, all aged 39 or 40, denied charges of theft and damaging property.

A verdict will be rendered on November 28.