Judge hands down lenient sentence as domestic worker has to support family in Philippines
On Friday, a 39-year-old Mildred Nilo Ladia was fined US$100 for eating her employer’s meatballs while working as his house maid, South China Morning Post reports.
Ladia was accused in the past of stealing a branded handbag and slippers last January for which her then employer deducted HK$100 from Ladia’s statutory salary of HK$4,210. She narrowly escaped another charge: After having been accused of stealing two pairs of leather slippers and an Agnes b handbag, prosecutors dropped the first charge since the victim was in a hospital and failed to be appear as a witness in the Eastern Magistrates’ Court, Apple Daily reported.
Ladia, who had previously worked in Singapore, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, admitted the second charge, but pleaded in exchange for a lighter penalty.
A judge fined her HK$800 ($103 US). Sing Tao Daily reports that she was not sent to jail after the court considered that Ladia had to financially support her family in her home country, the Philippines.
