A security guard at a technical secondary school in Zinj stole car engines used for teaching students and pawned them to buy chai karak, a box of cigarettes and petrol, a court has heard.
In February, the High Criminal Court sentenced the 55-year-old Bahraini man to three years in prison, and ordered him to return BD1,735 to the school, which is what the stolen items were valued at, and fined him an additional BD1,735.
He took to the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court to lodge an appeal, but judges upheld the sentence.
Despite being tasked with protecting the school over the summer vacation, the appellant stole a total of 39 car parts over the course of 11 days, sneaking them away, piece by piece, during his night shift duties.
He denied charges of theft and of exploiting his duty to guard the school and its property, despite previously admitting to them in prosecution questioning.
In the initial trial, he told judges he believed he was simply ‘clearing the scrap out’ when he took the engines.
The suspect’s lawyer submitted a note to the court, claiming that the man was too old to have carried all this equipment, and that it was ‘impossible’ and ‘defies logic’ that he could fit a whole engine in his car’s boot.
The attorney claimed that a man running a scrap shop in Salmabad, who reportedly testified against him, had actually ‘never encountered the appellant nor bought any mechanical equipment from him’.
The GDN earlier reported that the Bahraini took 11 car engines, four manual transmission motors, four engine head gaskets, 12 rear axles and eight differential gears.
Police conducted an investigation at the school, and found no damage or signs of breaking-and-entering upon inspecting the campus’s metal fence.
Fingers were pointed at the appellant by some of the members of staff, and he was summoned by the school’s administration, but did not appear.
According to a policeman who headed the investigation, he is wanted by several police stations on suspicion of various drug charges.
Policemen went to his house while he was on night shift and reportedly found some of the missing equipment, the officer testified.
Footage
Security cameras captured footage of the man taking the equipment to his car, and in one of the clips, he reportedly appeared to be in a state of exertion, sweating as he was carrying a heavy engine to his vehicle.
Technical secondary schools in Bahrain offer vocational and industrial training for boys only, and students can choose from several tracks beside automotive mechanics.
Students can choose to specialise in electronics, welding and fabrication, air conditioning and cooling, diesel engines, electric power distribution, appliances maintenance, telecommunication, machining or instrumentation.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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