An Indonesian domestic helper who used to work for a Hong Kong businessman has been sentenced to 20 months in jail for stealing almost HK$750,000 (more than US$95,800) worth of jewelry from her employer.
The 31-year-old woman identified only as Qomariyah pleaded guilty to one count of theft yesterday, and admitted to stealing the jewelry while cleaning the Happy Valley home of 67-year old Jerome Lau Ting-sing, who is also known as “Dandy Lau.”
According to Apple Daily, the District Court heard that Lau called the police in July after discovering three rings missing from his storage room in his apartment.
Police searched the apartment and found pawnshop receipts with Qomariyah’s name and identity card number.
Qomariyah told police upon her arrest: “I wanted to go back to Indonesia, but I didn’t dare to tell my employer, so I stole from him to get fired.”
It emerged that she had pawned 26 pieces of jewelry to four shops for HK$47,700 (just over US$6,000) between November 2016 to July.
Ming Pao reported the items were worth between HK$3,000 to HK$150,000 each (US$380 to around US$19,100).
According to Apple Daily, 18 of the pieces pawned, worth a total of HK$749,000 (over US$95,700), belonged to Lau, and included a gold necklace, a gold Gucci ring, and a skull-shaped diamond ring.
In mitigating remarks, Qomariyah — through her lawyer — apologized to Lau, and said that she was the breadwinner for her family and was supporting her parents and four siblings.
Her lawyer said Qomariyah “committed the offense out of foolishness” and was not evil by nature.
The judge felt otherwise and said the defendant was only foolish for using her own identity card to pawn the items.
He added that the defendant was greedy, and abused the trust of her elderly employer.
Outside court, Lau told reporters that he valued his helper, who had been working for him for around three years after his mother passed away.
Lau said that he had to use his own money to redeem the pawned jewelry, and that he will not hire a live-in domestic helper anymore.
According to the SCMP, Lau was jailed for 17 months in 2012 for molesting a young male model and threatening to publicise explicit photos of two others. He lost an appeal against the conviction in 2013.
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