Singapore — An Indonesian domestic helper was sentenced to 10 months of jail for stealing S$22,432 worth of cash and jewelry from her employer.
Pipin Ahsani Imama (30) began working for her employer in Pavilion Park from Sept 2017 to July 2019.
According to court documents, Pipin began pilfering small items and cash in Jan 2018.
The female employer did not lock the drawer where she kept her valuables and cash.
Pipin initially pocketed a few S$1 coins and gradually increased to bigger amounts of cash and in different currencies.
Afterwards, Pipin started stealing precious stones and jewellery from her employers’ house.
Some of her loot included a S$2,000 gold ring and a gold chain with a pendant worth S$2,500.
Pipin even took her employers’ gold wedding rings worth S$1,000 each.
Had she not been caught in the act by her employer, Pipin might have continued with her streak.
However, she ran away when her employer called the police the next day on July 1, 2019.
Police arrested her a few weeks later at the Geylang area.
Pipin already pawned most of the stolen jewellery at pawn shows for a fraction of their actual worth.
The gold jewellery was estimated to be worth S$9,500, but she pawned these for only S$745.
Police also recovered some of the jewellery, but S$4,432 worth of items were no longer found.
The maid argued that she needed to pay her debts back home in Indonesia.
She tried to plead for leniency, saying that she was a single mother to three young children.
Although she expressed remorse for her crimes, Pipin pleaded guilty to six counts of theft and was sentenced to 10 months jail. -/TISG
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