UAE Supreme Court says man could not steal his own phone

ABU DHABI // A man who took back his mobile phone from a shop did not steal because it was his property, the Supreme Court has ruled.

The defendant, a business partner of his accuser, who ran a mobile-phone shop, brought his personal BlackBerry to put it up for sale in the shop.

When the partnership ended, the defendant took his personal belongings, including the phone, and his partner accused him of stealing the phone and accessories from the shop.

The Khor Fakkan Criminal Court found him guilty in June last year and sentenced him to a month in jail and deportation. He appealed against the verdict and the court ruled on July 23 this year to change the verdict to a one-month suspended sentence and to cancel the deportation order.

He then took the verdict to the Supreme Court, arguing that the items he was accused of stealing were his own property and therefore it was not theft.

The court ruled in his favour. It said that for the crime of theft to stand, the property would have to have been taken without the consent of the owner.

The criminal intent is fulfilled if the offender was aware at the time of the act that he was stealing the property of another without his consent. Throughout the investigation the defendant said the items belonged to him. The court accepted the cassation because the previous verdict did not fully account for this aspect.