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| The defendant was caught with unpaid food items from Kaibo Supermarket in North Point (File) |
A middle-aged Filipina domestic helper was visibly relieved when she got off with a bindover order after pleading guilty to theft today at Eastern Court.
H.E.F., 52 years
old, was told by Magistrate Ivy Chui that she would not go to prison and would
not even have a criminal record unless she commits another offence within 12
months. If she does, she will have to pay $1,000 and get a criminal record.
“Remember, do
not commit any offence within this period, otherwise, you will have to pay
$1,000 and serve whatever new sentence is imposed on you,” said the magistrate.
The Filipina,
however, was ordered to pay court costs of $500, which would have to be offset with the
bail she posted. The two shopping bags taken from her during her arrest on May
31 this year were also ordered confiscated.
H.E.F., who lives in Happy Valley, was
stopped as she was about to leave Kai Bo supermarket at the North Point market
on Cheung Yeung Street after staff noticed her taking some grocery items from
the shelves and putting them in her shopping bag.
Found in her bag
were a pack of tomatoes, a pack of snap beans, three packs of pork and one pack
of snowbeans, worth a total of $114.70. She was unable to show a receipt for
the items.
A review of the
CCTV at the shop showed her taking the items from the shelves and putting them
inside her bag. She told staff she
merely forgot to pay for them.
It took nearly an
entire morning of negotiation before the prosecution agreed to her counsel’s
plea for a bindover order.
