Myanmar domestic worker, 25, steals S$10,130 from S'pore wheelchair-bound employer & spends it on clothes & makeup

A foreign domestic worker from Myanmar stole over S$10,000 from her wheelchair-bound employer in Singapore and spent it on clothes and cosmetics.

The 25-year-old pleaded guilty on Oct. 3 to one count of theft.

She was sentenced to nine months' jail, Shin Min Daily News reported.

Her first name was reported as Yin (transliteration from Chinese).

Asked to withdraw money

The victim, a single 68-year-old woman, named Liu, hired Yin in October 2023 after she suffered a stroke.

She paid Yin a monthly salary of S$550.

Yin's responsibilities were mainly to clean the house and look after Liu.

But whenever she needed to withdraw money and her nephew was not around, she would ask Yin for help.

As such, Yin knew the PIN number of Liu's ATM card.

Missing funds

On Nov. 10, 2024, Liu's nephew noticed sometime amiss with his aunt's bank records.

He realised that Yin had repeatedly withdrawn money without permission.

After lodging a police report, her crimes came to light.

Between Apr. 26 and Oct. 30, 2024, the domestic worker had withdrawn money from her employer's account 19 times and deposited it into her own account.

She stole the money in increments of S$100 to S$500, totalling S$10,130.

She has yet to make any restitution.

Victim often cries

Liu told Shin Min that she could not understand why Yin had acted the way she did.

"I was quite nice to her," she said, adding that she even cooked for the domestic worker, who was apparently not good at cooking.

"She didn't apologise, and I didn't get my money back," Liu added.

She added that Yin had apparently often used her mobile phone while working, and was not very diligent.

She had also requested to end her two-year contract early, but refused to explain why.

During the hearing, Liu's nephew said his aunt was still very sad and cried every time she talked about the incident.

In mitigation, Yin admitted that she had made a mistake and promised not to do it again.

She pleaded for leniency and asked the judge to send her home as soon as possible.

Top image from Yin's Instagram and Canva