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| The defendant had been jailed for 2 months when she appeared in court today |
A 43-year-old Filipina who had been employed as a domestic helper for a year and a half was today sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for stealing 11 pieces of gold jewelry from her employer worth a total of $93,184.
Mirasol C. Baril, described by her lawyer as a college
graduate and a former government employee in the Philippines, looked relaxed as
she pleaded guilty to one count of theft before Principal Magistrate Ivy Chui
at Eastern Court.
She admitted stealing 5 gold bracelets, 1 gold
necklace, 1 gold pendant and 4 gold rings from her employer in her flat on Sham
Wan Road in Wong Chuk Hang, between Nov. 19 to Dec 24, 2023.
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| PINDUTIN DITO |
The thefts were discovered only on Mar 24 this year
after the employer, Mrs Yeung, found pawnshop receipts inside the drawer used
by Baril in her house. When she checked the receipts, she discovered that they
matched her jewelry pieces that had gone missing.
The court was told that the employer lost all the
jewelry worth $93,000 and Baril did not have money to pay her back.
According to the defense lawyer, Baril had planned
to give back the jewelry that she stole to her employer, so she made interest
payments on them for four months. However, she failed to redeem them on time.
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| TAWAG NA |
The lawyer also said Baril was driven to steal because
of financial difficulty. She is a single mother of two children, and is the
sole breadwinner in her family, which includes her elderly parents. Her money
problem worsened when her 73-year-old father had his gallstones removed
sometime last year.
But in sentencing, Magistrate Chui only gave credit
for Baril’s guilty plea and clear record. She reminded the defendant that she
had breached the trust between her and her employer by stealing the valuable
items.
“You have no money to pay back the jewelry, so your
employer suffered financial loss amounting to $93,000,” said Chui.
Given the value of the stolen items, the magistrate used nine months’ imprisonment as a starting point in sentencing, and after giving 1/3 discount for the defendant’s guilty plea, imposed a sentence of six months.
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