Men stole 14 tonnes of steel from construction site, court told

They attacked guard and carted away materials in a pickup truck, prosecutors say.

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DUBAI // Four men tied up a security guard and stole 14 tonnes of steel from a construction site, a court was told this morning.

Prosecutors told the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance that on January 7, the four Pakistanis, AA, GH, MA all 25, and JM, 37, raided a villa under construction in Bur Dubai area and stole the steel, worth nearly Dh28,000.

Records show they tied up the guard, AAS, 48, Bangladeshi, dragged him inside a room and locked him up.

An Indian man, PR, 31, is charged with possessing the stolen items despite knowing their source.

They all denied the charges. AA told the court that he could not have participated in the burglary, because he had been in police custody since January 1.

AAS told prosecutors that at about 6am on the morning of the incident, a colleague told him he saw a group of men loading steel from the villa construction site, so he went to check it out.

He said he saw about 10 men wearing traditional Pakistani clothing loading the steel into a pickup truck.

When he tried to call the site engineer, four of the men attacked him, blindfolded him, gagged him, tied him up and locked him in a room.

A colleague rescued him about a half-hour later.

The next hearing will be on October 20.

salamir@thenational.ae