Maid robbed Dh250,000 from sponsor’s safe

Dubai: A maid has been accused of stealing Dh250,000 in cash from her sponsor’s villa and absconding while the latter was spending the night out with his family.

The 31-year-old Bangladeshi maid, F.S., was said to have used a key that her Pakistani sponsor keeps in a drawer to open the safe, take the money and disappear in October.

Prosecutors accused F.S. and her co-worker, only identified as R., who remains at large, of stealing their sponsor’s money.

The maid pleaded not guilty and denied robbing money from her sponsor when she entered her plea before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Monday.

“I did not steal any money,” she told presiding judge Ezzat Mansour in courtroom three.

“Didn’t you allow the other suspect [R.] to enter the villa and steal the cash from the safe?” presiding judge Mansour asked the defendant.

“I did not help anybody. I didn’t steal,” she replied.

The Pakistani sponsor claimed to prosecutors that he left F.S. and R. working at his villa and went out to spend the evening with his family.

“Once we returned home, the maid and R., who used to clean the cars and the outer part of the villa, absent. We did not find them. I rushed up to my bedroom to check the safe where I had left cash and jewelleries. The money was gone but the gold and jewellery were there. Everything looked neat and the clothes inside the drawer where I kept the safe key were also neat. Then I realised that the suspects had taken the key from the drawer, opened the safe and taken the money. Nothing was wrecked or destroyed. My wife told me a week earlier that she had not spent any of the cash and it was still in the safe. R. did not live with us in the villa but he lived at his own home … he used to come in the morning, clean the cars and the villa’s outside and leave in the evening. F.S. stayed in her private room adjacent to the villa. The defendants must have made a copy of the villa’s main gate key and used it to run away … usually we take the key when we leave the house,” he testified.

The maid was cited telling prosecutors that R. is the one who stole the cash and when she saw him leaving with loads of cash, he handed her Dh8,500.

Records said police seized Dh2,000 in her possession when she was arrested.

A ruling will be heard on February 25.