DUBAI: A muscular man, whom a maid hired to conduct a revenge robbery against her ex-sponsor over mistreatment he subjected her to, has lost an appeal against his one-year-jail.

A Filipina maid, 32, hired her unemployed male Emirati friend, 39, to help raid her ex-sponsor’s villa on Mar.1 for having mistreated her during a period she was working inside the villa, records showed.

The Criminal Court sentenced them to one year in jail and ordered the deportation of the maid upon completion of her jail term. The Emirati man has vainly appealed seeking to challenge the ruling.

On the record, both lurked outside the villa in Al Barsha. At around 8.20am the ex-sponsor and his wife went their way. The vengeful maid knocked on the gate. A Filipina worker opened.

The man suddenly showed up and tied the worker’s arms with a plastic rope. The maid rushed upstairs to the ex-sponsor’s bedroom and collected the jewellery in a plastic bag.

The man dragged the worker into the kitchen, pulled out a sword from under his clothes and threatened to behead her if she shouted. He dragged her inside her bedroom where he tied her legs.

He grabbed her mobile phone from a table and locked the bedroom door from outside. She used a penknife to cut the ropes. She got out through the window and climbed down the wall.

She summoned a neighbour who waited for them outside the gate. The vengeful maid had already entered the getaway car with the valuables. The man carried a heavy safe full of money. He walked out of the villa.

The neighbour stood in his way while the worker shouted “Thieves!” He placed the safe on the ground, bent in frustration, entered the car and sped off. Police arrested them in Satwa and recovered the valuables.