DUBAI 6 September 2017: A jobless Emirati, SS, 35, who stole motorbikes from a farm on two occasions and sold them to an Egyptian dealer received one year in jail.
The Dubai Criminal Court also awarded the Egyptian dealer IH, 44,the same jail sentence (one year in jail) in addition to deportation.
Hats off to agency that – for two motorcycles – took the trouble to contact the American manufacturer so it could trace the owners and return the vehicles to them… after the thief had defaced the chassis numbers.
The second theft was committed in January 2015 and was discovered in April 2017 when the buyer of the stolen bike SM, 42, Emirati employee handed it over to the agency for repair.
Modus Operandi
At around 2.15 am on October 4, the guard of a farm owned by Emirati trader, SA, 45, woke up as he heard someone lock his room’s door.
“I got up and tried to open the door but it was locked from outside. While trying to open the door, I heard the engine of the motorbike and then the sound faded away. I broke the lock and got out but did not find anyone,” testified the guard.
The guard informed his employer about the theft of his blue motorbike worth Dh104,000.
Police investigated the theft and found out that the locks of the farm’s gate and that of the chain on the bike were broken.
In April, 2017, the bike was handed over to the agency in Al Mussafah area in Abu Dhabi for maintenance.
America Called
The agency noticed that there was something wrong with the bike’s chassis number. Removing a paste on which the chassis number was engraved, the agency found that there were attempts to damage the chassis in a bid to remove the original number. The agency could read some of the digits and checking with the American manufacturer, the agency could find out the full chassis number and so the original owner of the motorbike was identified.
The agency told the police that the original colour of the motorbike was blue which was changed to red.
Police questioned SM, who handed over the motorbike to the agency.
“I bought the red motorbike from a company behind Dragon Mart on October 26, 2015 for Dh73,000. The owner of the company told me that motorbike was imported from outside the country and did not show any documents that proved his claim,” testified SM.
Seller Questioned
Police questioned Egyptian, IH, 44, owner of the company from where SM bought the motorbike.
The Egyptian admitted to selling the motorbike to SM and said that he had bought the motorbike from Emirati SS, 35, for Dh56,000. “I bought the bike although the seller did not present any documents proving his ownership of the bike,” he admitted.
He presented the purchase bill and supplied the police with the photocopy of the ID of the seller, SS.
SS admitted to stealing the motorbike from the victim’s farm. However he claimed that he sold it to the Egyptian for Dh23,000 and that he did not change the bike’s colour and its chassis number.
The victim learned that the thief and the Egyptian were also involved in the theft of another Polaris RZR model 2011 from his farm in 2014.