FDH steals from boss for repair of PH home

Eastern Magistracy

SHE stole $100 from her employer because she never received any financial help from her.

A Filipino domestic helper on Jun. 8 pleaded guilty to stealing the money from her employer on Apr. 26, 2017.

The duty lawyer of M. Monge, a 33-year-old mother of two, told Eastern Courts Principal Magistrate Bina Chainrai that when the defendant started working for her employer in North Point in 2012, she was told never to borrow money from financing agencies.

Being separated from her husband, and the sole breadwinner of her family, when a typhoon struck the family’s house in the Philippines, she had nowhere to turn to for help.

The lawyer said the house’s roof was blown away by the typhoon and Monge’s family had no money for its repair. They needed $9,000 to repair the family’s home.

Monge’s employer marked two $100 banknotes and put it in her wallet. When the notes went missing, the helper’s belongings were searched and one of the missing notes was found among them. The other $100 banknote was not found.

He said in 2015, when the defendant’s mother got injured in a traffic accident, Monge tried to ask her employer for help, but she was turned down.

Owing to this, she no longer sought her employer’s help again if she had financial difficulties.

“That is not a reason to steal money from her employer,” said Judge Chainrai.

The duty lawyer agreed and said it was “stupid” of the defendant to take the money from her employer.

“I told her in cases involving breach of trust a custodial sentence is most likely,” the lawyer said, adding that owing to the offense it was also likely that it would be the first and last employment of Monge in Hong Kong.

But Judge Chainrai said that considering the defendant’s previous clear record and the amount that was taken from the employer, the offense did not merit a jail term.

Judge Chainrai then sentenced Monge to three weeks in prison but reduced it to two weeks owing to her guilty plea, and suspended the sentence for 12 months.

A suspended sentence meant that if Monge does not commit any other offense within the period, she would not have to serve the sentence at all.