Maid stole over $6,000 from piggy bank savings of employer's daughter

A maid who had already borrowed about $10,000 from her employer for supposed medical expenses for her family in the Philippines wanted more money.

Joann Desoloc Martinez, 44, decided to steal it from a piggy bank belonging to one of her employer's two daughters. It contained the victim's savings since 2009.

She used tweezers to remove the cash and did so over more than two years, taking a total of $6,211.

The theft was uncovered in February when her employer broke open her 20-year-old daughter's piggy bank and found only $144.

Martinez was yesterday jailed for five months, after pleading guilty to a theft-in-dwelling charge.

State Prosecuting Officer Lam Peng Choy said in court documents that Martinez had been working for the family since 2015.

"By her own account, the complainant and her family treated her well," he said.

Martinez claimed in early 2019 that her family in the Philippines needed money for medical expenses. She borrowed about $10,000 in total from her employer, but deemed it insufficient and decided to steal from her employer's daughters whom she knew kept substantial amounts of cash in their piggy banks.

Between February 2019 and June last year, she entered the victim's bedroom to steal from the piggy bank. Court documents did not mention if she stole from the other daughter's piggy bank.

The prosecutor said "(Martinez) was unable to recall the total number of occasions she stole from the piggy bank, save that she stole sums of $50 to $200 on each occasion". After stealing the cash from the piggy bank, she remitted the money to her family in the Philippines over numerous occasions.