DUBAI // A maid stole a Dh50,000 Cartier watch from her sponsor’s wife because she was not allowed to go shopping, a court heard yesterday.
Prosecutors said E?P, 33, a Filipina, took the diamond-encrusted watch as she left for the airport following the end of her five-year contract.
She was arrested as she was about to board a plane to Manilla on August 16.
Her sponsor S?A, 42, an Emirati, said he and his wife discovered the watch was missing shortly after the maid left. They called her while she was still at the airport and she confessed to stealing it.
Under interrogation the woman said she asked to go shopping for gifts before her return flight home, but was prevented from doing so by her sponsor’s wife.
“I took the watch from her closet in their Jumeirah villa to get back at her because she did not allow me to go shopping,” said the maid.
She added that she did not know the value of the watch when she stole it and that she had never stolen anything before.
She was not present at the Dubai Criminal Court to enter a plea to the charge of theft. The case was adjourned to September 10 to summon her.
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Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
