A 39-year-old Indonesian maid in Singapore, Mimin, pleaded to one charge of theft by a servant and was sentenced to 5 months imprisonment on 13 February, according to Channel NewsAsia.
She had suspected that her 71-year-old elderly employer had dementia because she showed symptoms of memory loss, and used the woman’s debit card to withdraw $18,710 from her account for herself.
Another 2 charges were taken into consideration during her sentencing.
What happened?
Mimin started working for the victim in October 2020 and was paid about $670 to $690 per month, where she was tasked with caring for the elderly woman and her bedridden husband.
Minin realised during her work that the victim was showing symptoms of memory impairment, and suspected that she had dementia.
The victim was withdrawing money on one occasion, and the maid saw the woman’s pin number being entered and memorised it, noting that the elderly woman kept her debit card inside her handbag.
The victim’s memory got worse over time and she trusted Mimin with withdrawing money for her.
When Minin helped the victim withdraw money, she would also take some money and keep it for herself, as well as steal the card on occasion to withdraw money.
She withdrew a total of $18,710 from the victim’s account on 46 occasions, from January 2021 to December last year, using it to buy a pair of earrings and remitting most of it home.
Caught
The victim’s daughter used her mother’s debit card to withdraw money for her on 11 February 2022 and found about $100 left in the bank account.
She remembered her mother had about $13,000 in her bank account the previous August and told her brother about it – they then discussed the issue before reporting it to the police about 3 days later.
Mimin claimed innocence in her first two statements provided to the police, she said that the victim had voluntarily given her the debit card and authorised her to withdraw money on her behalf, and added that she followed her instructions and used the money to either buy groceries or passed her the money.
She later confessed to her crimes during her third statement recording, after being confronted with remittance slips that were recovered by the police during their investigations.