DUBAI // A moment of carelessness almost cost a company more than Dh7million, as a driver sped off with a bag of cash left on the passenger seat.
GF, a 25-year-old sales manager, was taking the money from an exchange house to the bank, the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance was told.
At the bank, he got out to discuss the deposit with the bank manager, leaving his mobile phone and the cash on the passenger seat.
The driver, AS, a 31-year-old Pakistani, spotted his chance and drove off.
Police tracked him to an apartment in Fujairah. But by the time they arrived, he had fled the country.
The men he stayed with - ASH, 31, ES, 30, HH, 35, AK, 25, and OZ, 50 - were sentenced to between six months and a year for possessing stolen money and hiding a criminal.
Prosecutors said ASH planned the crime and urged AS to rob his employer. ASH then helped AS cross the Omani border.
The arresting officer, AA, 33, told the court that ASH had admitted encouraging AS to steal the money.
Police said he also confessed to hiding AS and helping him flee to Oman and then Iran. AS did not take any of the stolen money with him.
The policeman MS, 46, said AK hid the money in an abandoned shop in Fujairah.
All five will be deported after completing their prison terms.
AS was sentenced in absentia to five years in jail.
