A jobless Ethiopian is accused of assaulting a man and stealing the Dh18,800 he was about to use to pay off his credit card, Dubai Criminal Court heard on Tuesday.

Prosecutors said that on August 17, the Indian victim, 45, was walking to an exchange house in Naif to repay an outstanding amount of Dh14,000 when he was attacked by the 43-year-old defendant.

“I was walking when two men approached me and one of them assaulted me and I fell down to the floor, so one of them snatched the envelope from my pocket, then they fled and I started screaming, ‘thieves, thieves’,” said the businessman.

The defendant denied a theft charge in court on Tuesday morning.