Dubai Airport bag handler goes on trial for theft of passenger’s credit cards

A worker from a baggage handling company at Dubai Airport has gone on trial accused of stealing a passenger’s bag and using the man’s credit cards to go shopping.

Dubai Court of First instance was told the 28-year-old Tunisian employee was manning the Dnata excess baggage counter at Dubai Airport Terminal 1 last October when the 54-year-old Indian passenger checked in his bags.

The passenger was in a rush to catch his flight and had to pay overweight bag fees at the counter. “I left a small bag on the trolley containing four gold earrings, a cheque book and credit card for a local bank, as well as a letter containing the password,” the Indian passenger said in official records. After realising he’d left the bag, he said he returned to the counter, but the bag was gone.

“I searched but couldn’t find the bag. I contacted Dubai Police at the airport, who asked me to board my flight as the plane was waiting to depart, and advised me to open a complaint when I came back,” he added. A few days after arriving in India, he called the bank to cancel his credit card and discovered someone had spent Dhs9,000 on the card.

Dubai Police checked CCTV cameras at the airport, but couldn’t identify who took the bag,

“We checked the CCTV cameras for the shops where the card was used and saw two Arabic men doing the shopping. We noticed one of them was an employee in the airport. We arrested him and he confessed he took the bag and used the credit cards,” a policeman told the court.

The Tunisian defendant was charged with theft, and both he and his 23-year-old compatriot were charged with using the credit card to obtain goods. They denied the charges and the trial was adjourned until next month to prepare the defence.

ali.shouk@7days.ae