Man accused of 16 theft cases gets acquittal in 13

An Emirati man, who has been accused of as many as 16 cases of theft from cars, was cleared in 13 of them.

In one of the cases, the 27-year-old unemployed accused was cleared by the Court of Misdemeanours of the charge of stealing cash, mobile phone and bank cards from a car. The Dubai Police operations room received a call about a theft from a car parked near Al Safa Park on October 2, 2016.

"I found someone had lowered the front window and stolen my wallet. I had Dh250, multiple bank cards and mobile phone (worth approximately Dh2,300)," the Sri Lankan car owner told the police officers.

After completing the legal procedure and getting a prosecution warrant, the suspect, who was detained in connection with another theft case, was taken from his detention at the Bur Dubai Police Station. The police took him into custody and he was later charged with as many as 16 theft cases for similarity in the criminal patterns in all the complaints.

Court documents show the accused admitted to stealing the Sri Lankan complainant's belongings around 1am after he checked the car and found it was not well locked. He later disposed of the phone in a garbage bin in Jumeirah because he found it was old.

He claimed during the interrogation that he was not in his right mind as he was on pills prescribed to him by a neurologist and requested he be referred to a psychiatrists' panel.

However, defence lawyer Hani Hammouda of Kefah Al Zaabi Office for Advocacy and Legal Consultancy argued that his client denied the charge during investigation and trial. "His early confession during interrogation was not compatible with what happened.

"He was just a newly-married at the time when most of the theft incidents took place. Besides, he was detained on October 19 and most of the complaints were received by the police after that date."

According to Hammouda, no stolen items were found in his client's house. "There is no evidence he could have sold or disposed of in any way of the alleged stolen stuff. Why would someone steal a phone then throw it away?," he argued.

He also relied his defence arguments on what he called conflicting statements given by witnesses during the investigation.

Source: Khaleej Times