Crane driver is accidental thief

A crane driver unwittingly moved a pile of steel reinforcing bar in order that another employee could load it on a truck and steal it.

An operator unwittingly became an accessory in a brazen heist of eight tonnes of steel rods, the Dubai court of first instance has heard.

The driver alleges that a site foreman asked him to remove the metal from a pit. What the crane driver did not know was that the foreman, and an accomplice who also worked for the firm planned to steal the rebar, presumably to sell it to another contractor.

In an interesting twist, another employee, a Lebanese engineer, has come forward to say that the Pakistani foreman had threatened the Nepalese accomplice with death if he did not comply with his demands.

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“When I discovered that the big load of steel rods was not in the site, I asked the second defendant about it. He alleged that the foreman stole the load from the site at night,” the engineer is quoted as saying.

Despite taking place at around 9pm, there were witnesses. One told the court that he saw the steel being loaded onto the truck, and presumed it was just part of normal operations.