A masseuse, who stole a Rolex watch and jewellery amounting to a total of $25,600 from her ex-husband, was jailed for a day and fined $5,000.

Itsariya Jinakarn, 41, a Thai national and a permanent resident here, pleaded guilty in a district court on Friday.

The court took into account a request by her former spouse not to impose a stiff sentence as the incident had unsettled and stressed out their 15-year-old daughter.

In his statutory declaration tendered at the hearing, Mr Chan Hwee Kiang, 51, said that his daughter's distressed state had prompted him to ask the police to withdraw all charges but the case still came to court.

The couple had divorced in 2002 but kept in contact for the daughter's sake. Since 2010, Mr Chan, a businessman dealing in hair products, had been living in Geylang East Avenue 3 with his daughter. When he went on overseas business trips, he would invite ex-wife Itsariya to stay there and care for their daughter.

On his return on Sept 28, 2011, he discovered the watch and several pieces of jewellery missing from a briefcase. She admitted stealing and pawning the items for a total value of $15,300. She had used some for her daily expenses and gambled the rest at the Marina Bay Sands Casino.