A man covered a security camera with a sock and painted the lenses of other cameras in an attempt to get away with a crime on Exhibition Road, the court heard.
He then set three dumpsters on fire by dousing them with kerosene, behind a now-defunct supermarket, but was eventually caught.
The High Criminal Court sentenced the Bahraini man to a year in prison for arson and fined him BD198 for the damage incurred to the bins.
He was found guilty of posing a threat to people’s lives and property by damaging trash disposal bins owned by a waste management company, and intentionally destroying goods belonging to others.
One midnight in May, officers of the Capital Governorate Police Directorate received a report about a fire and arrived at the scene after the Civil Defence extinguished the small blaze.
According to a policeman’s testimony, the Civil Defence said the fire was man-made, which was further confirmed in a forensic report about the incident.
Authorities attempted to follow the defendant using CCTV cameras in the area, trying to identify the food service worker through the recording.
Following a tip from a secret source, who informed the officers that the suspect lives in Gudaibiya, near the location where the crime was committed, policemen headed to the house and saw him walking on the road.
He had a paint bucket, a container of highly flammable kerosene and a lighter, court documents said.
The defendant admitted to charges of intentionally starting a fire during questioning, and once again in front of a judge in a hearing to determine the renewal of his pre-trial detention.
He was sentenced to a year behind bars.
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