Visitor drugs man with 'perfume' before robbery

Victim loses consciousness and wakes to find his wallet on the floor, empty.

Dubai // A 50-year-old visitor robbed a porter at the vegetable market of Dh700 by drugging him with "perfume", a court has heard.

EK, from Pakistan, met his compatriot SH, 30, in October last year at the fruit and vegetable market in Al Aweer and asked him for a drink of water, according to prosecution records.

The two and a third man chatted for a while, until the third man left. EK then offered the porter a bottle of red-coloured liquid and told him to sniff it. "He told me was perfume," said SH.

When he did, SH felt dizzy and then lost consciousness. He woke 15 minutes later to find his wallet on the floor, empty.

SH and his colleagues found EK trying to leave the market by taxi. The taxi driver refused to pick him up and the men chased him until he fell in a hole in the street.

"There were stones inside the hole, he picked up one and started hitting himself on the head then said we did it," SH's colleague
testified in court records.

EK admitted to the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance to charges of forceful robbery. A verdict will be issued on April 23.