Dubai: A babysitter has been accused of stealing a painting of her sponsor worth Dh200,000 and Dh300,000 worth of valuables and children’s clothes and games that she alleged to have donated to the poor.

A Filipina housemaid was said to have discovered that her 33-year-old countrywoman, G.R., had been stealing children’s clothes and games and other valuables from their American sponsor’s residence in September.

When the American sponsor confronted the babysitter, according to prosecution records, G.R. alleged that she took the children’s clothes and games and other goods and offered them to needy and poor children in her country.

Records said the American woman cancelled her babysitter’s visa and sent her back to the recruitment agency from where she had been hired. Afterwards, the sponsor discovered that G.R. had allegedly stolen valuables worth more than Dh300,000 during the four years she had worked for her [between 2010 and 2014].

Prosecutors accused G.R. of stealing a painting worth Dh200,000 and Dh300,000 worth of items.

The suspect has been identified as a runaway in prosecution records.

She did not show up before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Sunday where she was scheduled to enter a plea.

Presiding judge Mohammad Jamal will hand a ruling in absentia against the suspect on March 17.

The American housewife testified to prosecutors that her other Filipina maid sent her photos on WhatsApp of the items that G.R. had hidden in her cupboard.

“My other maid discovered children’s games and clothes and other items hidden in the suspect’s bedroom. Accompanied by my lawyer and another witness, I entered G.R.’s bedroom and discovered all the stolen items hidden in the cupboard. When I confronted her, at first she denied… but then she admitted that she had sent clothes and games to impoverished children in her homeland. Later I called up my family in the US to ask them if they had received the children’s clothes that I had sent them… I was told that they had not arrived. I suspected that G.R. must have stolen other things… I checked my belongings and I discovered that she had stolen a valuable painting, blankets, rugs, bedcovers, gold, jewellery, clothes, accessories, and other items,” she claimed to prosecutors.

The CCTV cameras installed at the American’s house revealed that G.R., her sister, and the latter’s boyfriend, had all been involved in the theft, according to records. The sister and her boyfriend stood trial before the Dubai Misdemeanours Court for aiding and abetting G.R.