Source: The Straits Times

Two Filipino maids stole from their employers, pawned the valuables and sent the money home.

Yesterday, the two were each jailed for six months by District Judge Shaiffudin Saruwan for the thefts.

Mary Joy Autor Quimay, 33, who faced 13 charges, admitted she took $22,150 worth of gold and diamond jewellery from her employer, Ms Maria Pilar Jimenez Enriquez, 36, between Oct 1 and Nov 9 this year.

The court heard that the maid would steal the items from a jewellery box in her employer’s bedroom whenever she was alone at the Lorong Kismis home in Jurong.

After pocketing the jewellery, she would head for a pawnshop in Toh Yi Drive to pawn the items and then to Lucky Plaza in Orchard Road to remit the cash to her family in the Philippines.

The court was not told how her crimes eventually came to light.

In the second case, Valendy Jabon Lombres, 26, was caught after her employer, Madam Leong Pui Mun, 54, a manager, found some pawn receipts for jewellery among her belongings.

The woman confronted the maid and asked her where the jewellery had come from.

At first, Valendy remained silent and cried, but when Madam Leong pressed her and asked if she had any more pawn receipts, the maid confessed.

She admitted she had stolen the jewellery and had pawned them off at a nearby pawnshop before sending the money back to the Philippines.

In all, she stole HK$5,000 (about S$900), $300, a $2,000 Rolex watch and $2,890 worth of jewellery from Madam Leong’s home in Toa Payoh Central between April and November.

Each of the maids could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined on each charge.