Two men shut down Etisalat station after stealing its diesel, Dubai court hears

The Pakistani pair were jailed after stealing 590 litres of fuel that led the station to cease transmission.

DUBAI // Two men who shut down an Etisalat communications station when they stole its diesel fuel were on Wednesday jailed for six months.

Dubai Criminal Court convicted Pakistanis M K, 26, and 29-year-old T M of theft and intentionally damaging an Etisalat communications service designed for mobile phones by halting the station’s transmission.

They were also convicted of causing damages to the fuel tank after breaking its lock.

Prosecutors said the men stole 590 litres of diesel from the station on February 10 last year, an amount worth about Dh2,000, but the pair denied the charges when they appeared in court in September.

Emirati Etisalat employee J M, 37, said that at 10.30pm on the day of the incident, a report had been received that transmissions at the Abu Dhabi-bound Sheikh Zayed Road station had stopped.

“Our technicians went to the location immediately and saw the lock to the fuel tank broken, then discovered that all the fuel was missing,” he said.

A police report was lodged and, for about four months after the incident, police received several reports of similar thefts.

“We tracked down the two defendants and made sure through investigations that they were involved in the thefts. We arrested them on June 29 [last year],” said Emirati policeman D A, 30.

“They confessed willingly that they committed the crime at the Etisalat station.”

Three more policemen testified that both defendants had confessed to them willingly.

Both men will be deported after completing their jail terms.