DUBAI // Five Pakistani men have each been sentenced to five years in jail after crashing a stolen car into a currency-exchange vehicle in a smash-and-grab robbery near Jumeirah Beach Road.
The men, who denied the charges in the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance, assaulted the passengers of the currency-exchange vehicle before making off with an undisclosed amount of cash.
The robbery occurred on the evening of January 10 behind the Jumeirah Plaza on the Jumeirah Beach Road.
The defendants WM and FA, both 29; AH, 26; GA, 27; and AR, 32, crashed a stolen Infiniti into a Toyota Corolla belonging to Al Ansari Exchange.
WM got out of the car and told the driver of the Toyota that he was a police officer. He then assaulted the driver while four other defendants pulled up in a stolen Range Rover, jumped into the Al Ansari vehicle and drove off.
A passenger in the Toyota told prosecutors one of the defendants choked him from behind and poked him in the eye before tossing him out of the car about half a kilometre from the scene of the crash. The rest of the men drove off in the Al Ansari car, which was carrying cash denominated in several currencies.
Officers traced the car and found it parked near Safa Park on the Sheikh Zayed Road.
A sting operation was set up and police waited for the defendants to appear. WM and FA were arrested and taken into custody. WM confessed and led police to the remaining defendants.
Court documents revealed that the men are also facing car-theft charges for the stolen Range Rover and Infiniti used in the robbery. No date for that trial has yet been set.
A sixth defendant, HM, 24, received a six-month sentence for possession of stolen property and an additional month for aiding and abetting a crime.
amustafa@thenational.ae
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