Trio who stole more than Dh745,000 worth of phones lose appeal

The two Pakistanis and an Afghan stole hundreds of phones from a shop in Dubai, including 17 gold-plated iPhones.

DUBAI // Three men have lost their appeal against a year in jail each for stealing Dh745,000 worth of mobile phones, including 17 that are gold plated, from a retailer.

Pakistanis aged 32 and 29, as well as a 22-year-old Afghan were convicted at Dubai Criminal Court of stealing 117 LG mobiles, 17 gold-plated iPhones, 15 Novo phones, 183 Samsung Galaxy phones, 51 HTCs, 51 Sonys, 24 Huaweis and 51 iPads, valued at a total of Dh745,633.

The theft was discovered when a 28-year-old Afghan went to open the phone shop in Naif on the morning of June 17 last year only to find that the door was broken.

“It was 7am and the guard told me that our shop had been robbed,” he said.

“I checked the place and saw that the locks were broken and the cutter the thieves used to damage the locks was left behind. I gave it to police.”

Checking surveillance cameras, he said the three men carried out the robbery at about 3am.

Police arrested one of them on July 14 after investigations confirmed his involvement in the robbery and, during questioning, he named the other two.

All of them will be deported after completing their jail terms.