Dubai: Three men lost their appeal and will be jailed for five years each for knifing a payroll official in a street and stealing Dh135,000 from him.

The trio, an Afghan porter and two Pakistani jobless men, robbed the Indian payroll official at knifepoint in Al Ghusais in September 2015.

The Indian victim, who worked in a Dubai-based trading company, sustained 15 per cent permanent disability.

In April, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the trio of assaulting the victim and causing him a permanent disability and stealing Dh135,000.

The defendants appealed the ruling before the Appeal Court seeking a reduced punishment.

Presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm rejected the defendants’ appeals and upheld their five-year jail terms.

The trio, who had pleaded not guilty, will be deported following the completion of their jail terms.

The payroll official said he had just withdrawn the money from a bank on Damascus Road to pay the workers’ salaries when he was mugged and the envelope containing the cash snatched from him. “The three defendants escaped from the scene leaving me with severe injuries on my shoulder, wrist and chest on Damascus Road. I had put the money in an envelope and walked out of the bank, when one of the defendants came from behind and snatched the envelope from me. I chased him and tried to catch him but he took out a knife from his pocket and stabbed me repeatedly. I tried to get hold of him again, but my injury held me back. Then a pedestrian came to my help he called the police,” the Indian testified.

An Indian businessman said he spotted the victim bleeding in the street and called the police.

A policeman said primary interrogations revealed that the trio had been involved in the robbery and they were hiding in Sharjah.

“We raided the defendants’ place and arrested them. The Afghan porter admitted that he and the Pakistani duo robbed the victim outside a bank in Dubai. The porter said when the Indian victim resisted them, they stabbed him and escaped from the scene and split the money among themselves,” said the policeman.

The appellate ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 28 days.