Indian man sentenced to 1 year in Dubai for stealing 86 watches worth USD 2 million

An Indian man has been sentenced to one year in prison after he was found guilty of stealing 86 expensive watches worth over USD 2 million from a shop in Dubai's famous Gold Souq.

The 26-year-old man, who worked as a cleaner, was sentenced by the Dubai Court of First Instance on Wednesday.

He was accused of stealing as many as 86 expensive watches worth over 8.3 million dirhams (USD 2.2 million) and the valuables from a watch and jewellery shop where he worked, the Khaleej Times reported.

Two Pakistani men (cousins), aged 44 and 25, both fugitives, who were accused in absentia for possession of the stolen watches, received one year imprisonment each, it said.

The court ordered deportation of all the three men after they have served their jail terms.

A complaint about the stolen watches was filed on January 6 at the Naif police station.

"On December 25 last year, I was in one of my shops when an Indian salesman brought to my attention that a watch, worth Dh30,000, was found in its box in the trash bin," the owner said in the complaint.

According to the owner, they then checked the shop's CCTV cameras which captured the cleaner taking the watch, putting it in a box and dropping it in the trash bin so he could smuggle it outside the shop later.

When the owner asked the defendant about the theft, he confessed he had stolen two watches worth 250,000 and 270,000 dirhams, the report said.

He sold each of them to a Pakistani man for 10,000 dirhams. He claimed he was not yet paid for the second watch, it said.

During the public prosecution investigation, the defendant admitted he stole the watches and then sold them to the two accomplices who knew they were stolen.

The cleaner can appeal the ruling within 15 days.