Dubai police arrested gang involved in stealing cars at airport.

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The main accused, an Arab national, has been sentenced to two years in jail, while four accomplices were ordered to serve a year behind bars.

Seven members of a gang involved in stealing cars parked at the Dubai airport were sentenced to jail on Monday.

The seven men of different nationalities – four of them businessmen – were found guilty of multiple charges of forgery, theft, possession of stolen property, usury, and breaking the UAE Foreigners Residency and Entry Law, the Dubai Court of First Instance ruled.

The main accused, an Arab national, has been sentenced to two years in jail, while four accomplices were ordered to serve a year behind bars. The other two were fined Dh20,000 each for the possession of stolen property.

The defendants who broke the residency law were referred to another court. All of them have been detained and will be deported after completing their jail terms.

A 46-year-old Swiss expat, on November 20 last year, reported to the police that his car had been stolen from the parking lot of the Dubai International Airport’s Terminal 1.

“At past 1am on November 3, I parked my car there and travelled to France. When I came back in the morning of November 20 and after finalising the arrival procedure at the airport, I could not find my car,” he said.

After checking the surveillance cameras, the police spotted the complainant’s car being driven out of the airport at 12.28pm on November 18. The culprits managed to take it out of the gate by tailgating another car.

A police sergeant said the driver of the other car raised their suspicions, so they tracked him down. “We found that the vehicle had been rented by a man, who is friends with one of the defendants on the trial,” the sergeant said.

After an intensive investigation and following the leads about those involved in the theft, the police arrested the Lebanese defendant in Sharjah on November 29 last year.

“He admitted that they formed a ring that targeted abandoned cars left behind in the car park of the airport,” the police officer told the prosecutor.

He added that they would usually start the parked cars via electronic re-programming. He also told the police that he sold the complainant’s car to one of the accomplices for Dh20,000.

The car was later smuggled out of the country with a forged customs clearance document. “The main defendants stole six cars which were abandoned and later sold them to their accomplices.”

The ruling can be appealed within 15 days.