Losing cherished personal items hurt, says Changi Airport Group’s chairman who accused maid of theft

SINGAPORE — Changi Airport Group’s chairman Liew Mun Leong, 71, said it was “most hurting” when he found that some of his personal belongings he held dear had gone missing from home. One of these was a compact powerbank for charging mobile devices — a gift to him from a French university that invited him to give a guest lecture.

“It disappeared after a few days. I was very upset,” he said.

Mr Liew took the witness stand in court on Thursday (Aug 16) to testify against his former Indonesian domestic helper, who is accused of stealing valuables and other items from his home.

Parti Liyani, 44, also known as “Yani” to his family, faces four theft charges. She had been the live-in help for eight years at Mr Liew’s home on Chancery Lane near the Dunearn Road area.

She allegedly stole a damaged Gerald Genta watch with a broken strap valued at S$25,000, two white iPhone 4 models with accessories valued at S$2,056, 120 pieces of men’s clothing items valued at S$150 each, a S$500 blanket, three S$100 bedsheets, a S$150 Philips DVD player, S$300 worth of kitchenware and utensils, a S$250 black Gucci wallet, a S$250 black Braun Buffel wallet, and a S$50 Helix watch.

These items were allegedly found a day after her termination, in three sealed boxes in the family home. They were left behind by her to be sent back to Indonesia.

Telling the court what else he lost, Mr Liew said that there was a bag he bought from Tokyo in Japan, which he claimed he “took a long time to buy”.

“It never (surfaced) in the house again,” he added.

Mr Liew said that he travels three to four times a month, and “had a propensity to buy bags” on these trips. Some were “not very expensive” Longchamp bags that cost him around S$100 or so each.

The ongoing trial, which started in April, has seen Mr Liew’s wife Ng Lai Peng and their son Karl testify against the helper.

At the dock for the first time on Thursday, Mr Liew said that he had “no issues” with Parti and he believed that she had “coped reasonably well” with work.

“I treated her very well… gave her additional days off during Chinese New Year… gave her some money when she travelled.”

Then, his belongings began to go missing.

While Mr Liew already had some suspicions about Parti for years before her dismissal, his wife was “disinclined to terminate the maid”.

“I don’t let people go unless there is a reason to distrust them. I tend to ‘over-trust’ people,” Mr Liew told the court, adding that he “tolerated” Parti “for many years”.

Then, on Oct 28, 2016, he finally decided to do what he had always wanted to do. While he was flying back to Singapore from Russia, he gave instructions to those at home — including his wife and son — to terminate Parti’s employment contract.

She was given just two to three hours to pack.

He touched down in Singapore on Oct 29, the same day Parti’s boxes were opened up, though it is unclear if he was present at home when they were opened.

When the family realised that the boxes contained items belonging to them, they decided to make a police report on Oct 30.

After she was dismissed from work, Parti was immediately sent home to Indonesia, but was arrested upon her return to Singapore two months later.

In the cross-examination on Thursday which lasted more than four hours, defence lawyer Anil Balchandani quizzed Mr Liew in great detail on several points. He questioned if Mr Liew had “trumped up” the statement he gave to the police, given that there were some mistakes in the police report that Mr Liew acknowledged.

“There is no motivation for a person like me to go against a maid,” Mr Liew rebutted. “There is no reason for me to fix anyone up.”

Mr Anil put it to Mr Liew that he saw his belongings in the box that he presumed were stolen and he never really thought about what had happened.

“I saw things that were lost…(and) I am confident (they were) stolen,” Mr Liew replied. “There were only three of us at home (for some time). When things went missing, if it wasn’t me, not my wife, then who else could it be?”

Insisting that the items in the three boxes were all stolen from the family, Mr Liew also “categorically objected” to the assertion that some of the items were either discarded by the family, or handed down to Parti, or misplaced.

He claimed that the family “did not expect her to leave behind three boxes”, because she already sent some items back.

Mr Anil charged that Mr Liew dismissed Parti because he did not want her to return to lodge “a complaint against the family”, and “because she knew the intimate running of (his) family”, but Mr Liew denied these allegations.

The trial resumes on Friday.

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