Dubai OFW Sentenced to Jail and Deportation
An overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who set a shop full of flammable liquids on fire in October last year has been sentenced to serve three months in jail.
Likewise, the Dubai Criminal Court ordered the deportation of the 43-year-old Filipino working as a sales representative after he has completed his jail sentence.
Based on the court testimony of the head of security at the Carrefour supermarket in BurJuman mall where the defendant’s company rented a shop, the defendant used cardboard boxes to start the fire on October 13 after being denied a transfer from his company in one of the oldest shopping malls in Dubai to a branch in Jebel Ali.
The security personnel told the court that they received a call informing them about the fire which they were able to extinguish by the time they arrived at the scene.
He said if they responded seconds later, the fire could have claimed many lives considering that the store was filled with flammable materials.
During investigation, the defendant apparently confessed his guilt.
The Filipino, however, subsequently denied before the court that he deliberately started the fire saying instead that it was an accident.