DUBAI: An Afghan thief the United Arab Emirates has deported on six occasions is again facing trial, this time for 18 counts of stealing from cars, The National newspaper reported.

The man, who is in his thirties and was only identified as BH, was arrested after authorities noted methods used in the thefts matched patterns used by a convict already on their records.

“The suspect has shown unexplainable persistence in re-entering the country

to carry out his criminal acts,” police lieutenant colonel Ahmed al-Merri

was quoted as saying.

He “comes by sea from Iran to neighbouring countries and then infiltrates the UAE,” said Merri.

UAE authorities had previously jailed BH for seven years and deported him from the oil-rich Gulf state in 1995, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2005 and 2007, the report said.

“Because we never exclude criminals who have been deported from our investigation, we were able to draw the link between the thefts and this criminal and our sources confirmed our suspicion of him being in the country again,” said Merri.

BH reportedly has made rich hauls in almost all of his previous excursions.