Dubai: A maid has been accused of hiding her sponsor’s fashionable purse worth Dh7,500, valuable bracelet and branded clothes with the intention of sending them to her family abroad.

The 51-year-old Filipina maid was said to have packed a handbag with what she claimed to be her clothes and tried to take it out of her American sponsor’s villa because she wanted to send it to her family in the Philippines in April.

Before letting her go out of the residence, the American woman opened the maid’s handbag to search and found the branded clothes that she had recently purchased from the United States hidden inside, according to records.

The American woman and her husband were believed to have also went to the Filipina’s bedroom to search it and while doing so, they also found a fashionable purse worth Dh7,500 also hidden among her belongings.

The Filipina also turned out to have hid a bracelet in the washroom.

The American sponsor then reported the matter to the police who took the Filipina into custody.

Prosecutors charged the suspect with robbing valuables from her sponsor.

The suspect failed to appear before the Dubai Court of First Instance where she was scheduled to enter her plea on Thursday.

The sponsor testified to prosecutors that she discovered that her maid had robbed her belongings when she searched the handbag before she left the house.

“I had recently arrived from the US, from where I purchased branded clothes. The suspect was supposed to send a handbag to her relatives and when I searched her bag, I discovered that she had taken the new clothes and hid them in that bag. My husband and I also went to search her bedroom … we found that she had kept aside my valuable purse. Suddenly, she said she wanted to go to the bathroom … but my husband prevented her. When she insisted, we searched the washroom and found my bracelet hidden inside. After we called the police, the suspect cried and asked for pardon,” she claimed to prosecutors.

Presiding judge Urfan Omar will sentence the suspect in absentia on October 30.