DUBAI: A taxi driver who sped off with an elderly woman’s purse, removed Dhs2,000, shred her valuable cards and buried them at a sandy area, has been punished.

The Asian man, 26, targeted the 65-year-old Emirati housewife, who complained to the Rashidiyah Police Station. He will serve six months behind bars plus deportation, the Criminal Court has ruled.

In prosecution records, at around 10am on Sept.21, the housewife contacted a taxi corporation for a taxi to take her to a location in Rashidiyah. The cabbie arrived and transported her.

On the way back home she took the front passenger seat and placed her purse beside her. Upon entering the house she realised she forgot the purse behind. She hurried trying to flag him down.

He sped away. She contacted him and he claimed he had not seen the purse at all. She told him she would notify the police. He told her to go on if she wanted. The police station summoned him.

There were two cards of a charitable society and one card of a cooperative society. An Emirati warrant officer revealed that during interrogation the defendant maintained his denial.

The woman testified against him. During intensified interrogations he directed cops to a trash container in Mirdif where he tossed the wallet and a sandy area in Al Mizhar where he buried the torn cards.

Police went to the container and recovered the wallet. They then took the defendant to the sandy area and he unearthed the shredded cards.