(MENAFN- Asia Times) A 30-year-old Indonesian domestic worker was jailed for five years and two months on Wednesday after previously pleading guilty to threatening to kill her employer's bedridden husband in Singapore.
In June last year, Eko Alviah, who had worked for her employer for one year in a Housing and Development Board apartment on Woodlands Street, had originally been allowed to get her salary in advance, Shin Min Daily News reported. But on September 18, her employer refused to grant her three-months salary in advance.
At 9am on September 23, she hung a pair of scissors around the neck of her employer's husband Chew Seng Mun, 60, who was suffering from Parkinson's disease, and threatened to cut his nipple and kill him if he did not tell her his ATM personal identification number.
Not knowing that the PIN he had given her was false, the maid tied the man up with duct tape and took 25 pieces of jewelry including diamond rings worth a total of S$2,648 (US$1,950), as well as her own passport, from the bedroom.
At 9:55am, the man's son came to the apartment, untied his father and called the police. The maid, who failed to get money from an ATM, departed Singapore by ferry at around 11am and sailed to Batam in Indonesia.
She sold the stolen jewelry for S$140, 96% less than it was worth, at a roadside stall and stayed in her home country for seven months, The Straits Times reported.
In February, she tried to seek work in Singapore through several employment agencies but failed to fulfill some health requirements. In April, she got a new passport and arranged to work as a maid in the city-state.
On May 9, she was arrested by Singapore police.
After she pleaded guilty to seven counts of robbery, theft and other charges, she was given a 50-month jail term and ordered to receive six strokes of the cane, which she could replace with an additional 12-month jail term.
During the investigation, police found that the maid had stolen S$700 from Chew's wallet in December 2015 and spent the money on a mobile phone and some personal items.
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