Maid jailed 8 months for theft from employer and for other offences

A Filipino maid was jailed for eight months on Monday for stealing from her employer among other offences.

Dela Cuadra Ligaya Soriano, 36, who faced 20 charges, admitted to two counts of theft and one each of converting and removing the benefits of her crime. The rest were taken into consideration during her sentencing.

A district court heard earlier that she was cleaning the bottom corner of a wardrobe at her employer's flat in Woodleigh Close last June when she accidentally pulled one of the drawers and found some jewellery. She was tempted to steal the items then but did not do so.

A few weeks later, she decided to steal the items in the drawer. She recalled that her employer, Ms Melanie Lim May Ling, 39, had entrusted a bunch of keys to her to check for letters. She then took the keys from Ms Lim's handbag without her knowledge. She opened the locked drawer with one of the keys and stole a 100g gold bar worth $5,000. She subsequently sold it to a pawn shop, Valuemax Retail for $6,150.

Around August to September, she again stole jewellery worth at least $5,592 which she then pawned.

A pair of earrings and two rings worth a total of $5,300 were recovered. Investigations showed that she had remitted part of the money she got from the jewellery to the Philippines.