Prison term for 'pranking' UAE policeman is suspended

A border-security police officer who posed as a traffic policeman as a 'prank' has his one-month jail term suspended.

Powered by automated translation

ABU DHABI // A border-security officer who posed as a traffic policemen as a "prank" today had his one-month jail sentence suspended by the appeals court.

MS, an Emirati, was convicted of traffic-related offences after claiming to be a traffic policeman at Marina Mall. He stopped the car of someone he knew, knocked on the window and told the driver and passenger that he was with the police and asked for their ID cards.

They pretended not to know who he was and asked him for his police ID card.

He replied that he did not have it with him, but that as he was driving the colonel's car, "nobody could touch him", according to court records.

The two men inside the car then became annoyed and decided to block his vehicle with theirs and prevent him from leaving.

When they got out of their car to talk to him, he jumped in their vehicle and drove it out of the way.

The two men then reported him for posing as a policeman to get money from them.

The border-security officer's lawyer said the allegation made no sense. He asked how his client could have blackmailed the two men when they had done nothing wrong. The border-security officer said he had pretended to be a policeman as a "prank".

hdajani@thenational.ae