Two Pinoy aviation porters in Dubai plead guilty to stealing electronics

Two Filipino aviation porters at the Dubai International Airport pleaded guilty to stealing electronic items and selling them for cash, saying they “were in a very needy situation.”   The Filipinos—identified only as A.S., 33, and M.D., 28—faced the Dubai Court of First Instance on Monday and said financial hardships “forced them to steal tens of electronics from the airport’s Dnata warehouses,” news site Gulf News reported.   “We are dearly sorry, sir, and we resent what we did… we were in a very needy situation. We needed money to support our families,” the Gulf News quoted A.S. addressing Presiding Judge Maher Salama Al Mahdi.     A Syrian safety officer at the airport reported the incident, saying Dnata’s clients “mainly complained that electronics were emptied from the parcels and taken away from the warehouses.”   He said he looked into footage from surveillance cameras, where he saw A.S. “using a forklift to move the cargo boxes [that contained the electronics] from one spot to another that is out of the range of surveillance cameras.”   After that, the 33-year-old would “hide behind the boxes” to make sure no one sees him, the safety officer said, adding that he noticed the Filipino would look “over the boxes several times” before he opened them and stole the gadgets.

Meanwhile, prosecution records said M.D. admitted to smuggling the stolen items “under his clothes or in his handbag” so he could sell them and split the money with A.S., the report said.   A verdict will be heard on February 27, it added. - RJMD, GMA News