Two maids jailed for 7 and 10 months for stealing jewellery, cash from employers

SINGAPORE — In separate cases, two domestic helpers who stole jewellery and cash from their employers, all to pay off their debts back home in Indonesia, were sentenced to jail on Thursday (Sept 5).

Pipin Ahsani Imama, 30, and Hilda Hakim, 33, both pleaded guilty to six and two counts of theft respectively in the State Courts.

For taking S$22,432 worth of property, Pipin will have to serve 10 months behind bars. She fled her employer’s home in Bukit Batok after being discovered and was arrested two weeks later.

Meanwhile, Hilda was sentenced to seven months’ jail for stealing S$15,517 in gold jewellery as well as foreign and local currency.

For each count of theft in dwelling or as a servant, they could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined.

WHAT PIPIN DID

The court heard that Pipin worked for her employer in a Pavilion Park home, located in Bukit Batok, from September 2017 until July this year.

Between January and June this year, she took various pieces of jewellery and two gold coins from her employer’s box in an unlocked dressing table.

Pipin pawned the items at different shops around Singapore, including the Maxi-Cash pawn shops at Jurong East MRT Station and Lucky Plaza in Orchard.

In pawning about S$15,500 worth of the jewellery, she got only S$1,115.

She also took a pair of gold wedding bands belonging to her employer’s husband from their bedside table.

Court documents showed that she also took 50 S$1 coins on several occasions, 400 ringgit (S$132) and 80,000 Japanese yen (S$982).

On July 1 her employer’s daughter called the police, saying: “Yesterday, we caught her stealing and we interrogated her. Then she said she will return back the money and wanted to continue with me. She said her husband will sell their house.”

"Her passport, her (mobile) phone and her work permit are with me. She has erased all her things in the mobile phone,” the daughter added.

Pipin was arrested about two weeks later. She had been staying at a lodging place in Geylang for shelter.

She has not made any restitution.

On Thursday, she told District Judge Christopher Goh through an interpreter that she was “very remorseful”, adding that she is a single mother of three young children.

WHAT HAKIM DID

The court also heard that Hilda worked for her employer since July 2013. The location of the home was not stated in court documents, although the police report was made in Serangoon.

In November 2018, she was cleaning the master bedroom when she toyed with the safe box there. She discovered she could open it by pressing the number ‘0’ a few times.

Between then and February this year, Hilda stole about S$7,000 in gold jewellery.

She also took A$200 (S$188), 250 Korean won (S$286), 180 euros (S$277), 4,000 British pounds (S$6,786) and S$1,000 in cash from the safe box.

She pawned the stolen jewellery, remitted the money to Indonesia then took the stolen currency back home with her in June. She changed the cash into rupiah there and repaid her loans with the proceeds.

On July 14, after Hilda had returned to Singapore, her employer discovered what had happened and lodged a police report two days later. She was arrested the same day.