By Vir B. Lumicao
A Filipina domestic worker pleaded guilty on Oct 25 in Kwun Tong Court to
stealing more than $20,000 worth of jewelry from her female employer in Tseung
Kwan O between July 2016 and Aug 26 this year.
Magistrate Do So convicted Angelina dela Rama, 46, and ordered
her remanded in custody pending a background report from the probation office.
He set sentencing for Nov 16.
“This is a serious case. You breached the trust placed by
your employer in you. You will go to jail for a period of months or years
depending on the background report,” So told Dela Rama, who dressed up for the
hearing.
In mitigation, the defense counsel said Dela Rama has a
husband, a son, and a sick mother in the Philippines . She stole the jewelry
because she needed money for her mother’s medication and her son’s university
education, the lawyer said.
The prosecution said the helper was arrested on Aug 27 after
her employer, Chan Wai-fong, reported the theft of two gold bangles and three
gold necklaces that she kept in an unlocked drawer in her bedroom at her
parents’ flat in Kin Ming Estate, Tseung Kwan O.
The stolen items were worth a total of $20,254.
A prosecution report said Chan, 30, kept the jewelry in her
parents’ flat when she married in 2015 and moved with her husband into a flat
in Tsui Wan Estate, Chai Wan. She hired Dela Rama as domestic helper in March
2016.
Since July last year, she and Dela Rama had been visiting
Chan’s parents in Tseung Kwan O every weekend. After dinner, Chan would send
the maid back to Chai Wan hile she stayed overnight with her parents.
On the night of Aug 26, Chan again visited her parents with Dela
Rama, and after dinner, the maid was sent back to Chai Wan as before. The
employer checked her jewelry later that evening and noticed that the two gold
bangles were missing from the drawer.
Chan suspected the maid took the jewelry so she went to Chai
Wan the next morning and searched Dela Rama’s bag as she got out of the lift
lobby to take her day off. The employer
found one gold bangle in the maid’s bag and called the police.
A police search
of the maid’s belongings yielded five other pieces of Chan’s jewelry. Dela Rama
was arrested on Aug. 28 and she appeared in Kwun Tong court the next day, charged with two counts of theft.
