Asian maid gets 6 months in jail on theft charges

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

An Asian maid stole $2,900 from her employer’s wardrobe and was sentenced by the Dubai Criminal Court to six months in jail to be followed by deportation and fined her the same amount she stole. The ruling was upheld by the Court of Appeal.

The case dated back to last April when an Arab employee filed a complaint in which he stated that the maid working in his house stole $2,900 from his wardrobe, adding that the defendant confessed to the theft as soon as she was interrogated.

The defendant told the police and public prosecution that she used to steal money from her employer’s wardrobe, adding that she used to look for money while she was alone at home.

Recently, in a separate case, the Dubai Criminal Court sentenced an Asian woman to 10 years in jail to be followed by deportation and fined her Dhs50,000 on charges of importing narcotics. The defendant brought 6.3 kilogrammes of narcotics inside a water filter in her suitcase for promotion inside the country.  The narcotics, however, were detected by a customs inspector at Dubai International Airport, who referred the defendant to the competent authorities. The case dated back to last April when a customs inspector suspected the suitcase of the defendant, who was coming to the UAE via Dubai International Airport. According to his statement, the customs inspector inquired from the defendant if she had any prohibited materials in her possession but the defendant denied.

He then searched her suitcase and found a cylindrical water filter. After opening the top cover of the filter, he found a transparent plastic bag with a dark substance inside suspected to be hashish and weighing 6.3 kilogrammes.

The seized items were referred to the forensic lab. The report issued by the General Department of Criminal Evidence and Criminology showed that the seized items consisted of plastic wraps containing 6.3 kilogrammes of dark-coloured pieces of hashish. On interrogations, the defendant admitted that the items seized in her possession belonged to another person in her homeland, who asked her to hand the items over to a person in the UAE in exchange for a job as a maid in the country.