FDH returns stolen cash, still goes to jail

SHE returned the $2,860 that she admitted to have stolen from her employer, but she was still sent to jail.

Magistrate Kelly Shui on Aug. 28 sentenced J. Tuppil to six months in prison, but discounted it to three months after her guilty plea and returning the money to her employer. The defendant paid the amount after her brother came to Hong Kong on Aug. 27. and brought the money. Tuppil was originally scheduled to pay the amount on Aug. 25, but the money was not wired, and her brother had to come to Hong Kong to bring it himself.

The judge, who was then presiding over Court 1 at the Tuen Mun magistracy was Magistrate Ivy Chui Yee-mei, who told Tuppil that even if she would be able to pay back the amount that she took from her employer, a custodial sentence could still be imposed on her. Coming back to court in the morning of Aug. 28, the defendant said she was able to pay the money through the court.

However, she was still sent to jail by Judge Shui, noting that the offense was serious because it was a breach of trust. The defendant was hired by her employer in January 2016. In recent months, however, the employer surnamed Fan, noticed that some money was missing from the safe in her bedroom. Owing to this, the employer then installed a CCTV.

At about 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 10, the employer checked the items in the safe, and found nothing was missing. Four days after, she found that Japanese yen notes were missing, and upon checking the CCTV footage, she saw Tuppil at about 11:12 a.m. on Aug. 11 taking the safe’s key in the bedroom.The helper then opened the safe and stole four 10,000 Japanese yen notes. The employer then reported the case to the police.

Upon arrest, the defendant initially remained silent. In the presence of a Tagalog interpreter, however, the defendant admitted to taking the bank notes “out of greed” and she had exchanged them to Hong Kong bank notes.