Pinay caught selling vegetables in market

GOTCHA!

A Filipino domestic worker who had been working in Hong Kong for 24 years was sentenced to three months in prison after a labor inspector caught her selling vegetables in a public market in North Point.

Sha Tin Magistrate Ivy Chiu on March 16 convicted Trinidad S. Caritativo, 46, of breach of condition of stay after the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that she sold vegetables to an undercover labor inspector last year.

Caritativo had claimed that it was a case of mistaken identity.

“After having carefully considered the evidence, I accept the prosecution case in its entirety. The (labor inspector) was reliable and truthful in describing what happened,” Judge Chiu said.

“There s no such possibility of mistaken identity,” she added.

The prosecution said the incident happened at around 12 p.m. on October 19 at the Lai Kun vegetable store inside the Java Road Municipal Services Building.

A labor officer, surnamed Lau, said they had received information that a foreigner was working in a vegetable store.

When she arrived at the store, she saw a Chinese male and a foreign female selling vegetables.

“After approaching the store, I asked what the price of the snow peas was. The foreign female replied to me in Cantonese, `$24,’” Lau said.

The labor inspector said she bought the snow peas from Caritativo, who allegedly gave her $8 as change.

“I then went to another portion of the store and took a pack of (bell peppers). Without me asking for the price, the foreign female talked to me (in Cantonese), saying, ‘$12 per pack,’” Lau said.

The labor inspector said she bought the bell peppers from Caritativo and also some lilies worth $16.

“I also saw that some transactions took place between the foreign female and other customers,” Lau said.

She then informed her colleagues from the Immigration Department and the police who arrived at the scene at around 12:11 p.m. and they arrested Caritativo.

In her defense, the domestic worker said she went to the public market to buy vegetables because she was going to meet her friends that day and one of them was going to cook them.

She said that Lau mistook her for the elderly Chinese woman who was alleged selling vegetables at the stall.

“I have seen her selling there,” Trinidad said, adding that although she had been in Hong Kong for more than two decades, she spoke little Cantonese.

“I did not work there. I only went there to buy vegetables. I was going to buy string beans when he (the policeman) tapped my shoulder (and arrested me),” Caritativo said.

However, Judge Chiu noted contradictions in the Filipino woman’s testimony. The magistrate noted that Caritativo said she was planning to buy an eggplant and okra and arrived at the market around 10:45 a.m.

She was going to meet her friends at 11:15 a.m. but up to the time when the police arrived, she was still at the market.

“Why spend 90 minutes there without making up her mind where and what to buy? She also claimed that she was meeting her friends at 11:15 a.m. but then she stayed for 90 minutes without buying anything,” Judge Chiu said.

She added that there was also “no possibility” of Lau mistaking Caritativo for someone else because she observed the Filipino woman at the store for a long time. The labor inspector testified she observed the defendant for nine minutes.

“It was not fleeting,” Judge Chiu said.