Dubai: A jobless man, who trespassed into a friend’s house to settle a dispute and told his father he would burn their house, was sentenced to three years in jail.

The 51-year-old Emirati father rushed down to the ground floor of his villa once his wife alerted him that their son’s friends had trespassed into the living room at 1.30am.

The 31-year-old Emirati jobless man was believed to have forced his way into the villa to settle a dispute with his friend, who was not present at home when the incident happened in July 2016.

The mother cautioned her husband that she overheard the friends [the 31-year-old defendant and another person] when they were in the living room asking her son over the phone to come home.

When the father went down and asked the 31-year-old and the other person to leave, the Emirati defendant threatened to set their villa on fire if he called the police.

The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the 31-year-old defendant of trespassing into the villa and threatening the father.

Presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi sentenced the accused in absentia to three years in jail after he had failed to appear in court and defend himself.

The 51-year-old father testified to prosecutors that his wife alerted him that two persons had trespassed into their house.

“I went down to see what those persons wanted. The 31-year-old defendant told me that he had come to revenge because he had a previous dispute with my son. When I told him that I will report the police that he had trespassed into my residence, he responded ‘call the police and I don’t care … I will burn this place down if you call the police.’ Then he left along with his companion,” the father said.

Meanwhile the mother told prosecutors that she immediately called her husband when she overheard her son’s friends [defendants] speaking to her son over the phone.

Records said the Dubai Misdemeanours Court fined the other friend [second defendant] Dh3,000 for trespassing.

The 31-year-old accused is entitled a retrial as per the UAE Law as he has been sentenced in absentia.