Five members of a gang faced charges on Monday in the Court of First Instance for allegedly stealing jewellery worth Dh450000 from a villa.

The five Colombians all jobless in the age group from 20 to 28 are also accused of stealing expensive watches worth Dh250000 and $18000 in cash money.

The five left the country for Oman after the theft. One of them also allegedly used a forged British passport.

Two Sudanese including a student and a clerk are accused of aiding and abetting the other five defendants by leading them to the targeted residential villas and helping them rent a flat and a car they used when robbing the villas.

The owner of the villa a 42-year-old Emirati employee said in the investigation that around 6.30pm on June 27 he went out of his villa located in Nad Al Hamar.

Upon returning around 11.30pm he went to his bedroom and saw the room in a mess. He also discovered that the device used to control the surveillance cameras inside the villa was not there. Other rooms were also in a mess.

He checked his belongings and found that gold jewellery worth Dh450000 was missing and so were expensive watches worth Dh250000. A sum of $ 18000 was also stolen.He then contacted the police.

On July 9 he went to the general directorate of criminal investigation after being contacted and identified some of his jewellery.

A policeman said that they could track the suspects by getting a lead on the car they were driving. "We learnt that it was rented by a British man. But we could not find any details about him in the data system. So we knew that his passport must be forged."

Later they were also tipped off that a Sudanese student was involved along with others in the robbery of residential villas including the villa of the Emirati.

Around 4pm on July 3 the police arrested him in Sharjah. He admitted that he helped a Colombian gang rob villas.

He said he helped them through the other Sudanese and was told they came to the country for robbing villas. He helped them rent a flat in Dubai Marina for 20 days.

He also helped them rent a car from Shajrah and to buy tools to use in their robberies.

They also recorded in their smart phones the GPS routes to villas in Jumeirah Emirates Hills Al Safa Rashidiyah which could be possible targets.

The other Sudanese was arrested the same day. He recounted how he met one of the gang members on Facebook and the latter told him that he planned to come here to commit robberies.

On July 9 Omani authorities handed over the Colombian defendants to the Dubai Police.

The Emirati was summoned during that time to identify the jewellery that was robbed from his villa. The hearing has been adjourned to November 26.