An Egyptian employee stole $4,000 from a Syrian woman artist, the Dubai Criminal Court heard.
Four months before the crime, the artist, KA, 25, met AM, 25, who works in a bank and saved his contact on her mobile.
On October 11, at around 11pm she called him, as she needed to exchange some dirhams to dollars.
“I asked him to pick me from the hotel at Al Barsha area to an exchange where I could get the currency. He drove to the closest exchange at Mall of the Emirates. I got $8,000, which I put in my bag. Then I requested AM to drop me back to the hotel,” she testified.
He started roaming around and driving slowly.
The woman asked him to head to the hotel quick because she had to catch a flight the next morning.
“Then he stopped the car mid-way and asked me to give him $4,000. When I refused, he pulled my hair and pushed me against the front glass. Afraid, I gave him the amount. He drove me back to the hotel and all the way he was apologizing of what he did to me,” she said.
As she reached to the hotel, she screamed and asked the security to stop him.
As the security did not understand Arabic, the accused drove away.
The artist, meanwhile, forgot her handbag in the car.
Police arrested the accused and handed him over to the prosecution.
The court will reconvene on December 19.