SINGAPORE — A domestic helper took S$5,002 from her elderly employer’s safe, put the cash in a small plastic bag and hid it inside her private parts.

The cash was discovered only during a body check at Changi Women’s Prison after she was charged in court with her offences.

On Thursday (May 9), Bajo Nelgielyn Bobita, 28, was sentenced to 16 weeks’ jail after pleading guilty to two charges of theft.

The Filipino had worked in the household of Mr Lee See Boon, a 69-year-old self-employed businessman, for one year and two months until March this year. Mr Lee lived with his wife and five-year-old grandson in a flat in Serangoon Avenue 2.

The court heard that on Feb 22, Bobita was doing routine chores when she decided to steal valuables from Mr Lee.

She went into his room and found a small bag containing a key to his safe, as well as a piece of paper with the PIN number written on it. She then took S$3,000 from the safe.

After that, she went to Lucky Plaza on Orchard Road and remitted the money to her family in the Philippines. She has not made restitution of the cash.

Two weeks later, on March 6, she again decided to steal from Mr Lee as she was having financial difficulties.

Emboldened by the earlier incident, which went undetected, she went into Mr Lee’s room and again unlocked the safe, this time taking S$5,002. She later hid the money in a sanitary pad in her room.

Mr Lee made a police report later that day to report money missing from his safe. Bobita was arrested the same day.

She was charged with the offences two days later and sent to the Changi Women’s Prison.

At 9pm that evening, a body scanning process there revealed a foreign object hidden within her vaginal cavity. The object was a small plastic bag containing the stolen S$5,002.

For each charge of theft as a servant, Bobita could have been jailed up to seven years and fined.