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| The 3 helpers allegedly helped Nones pawn some of the stolen jewelry |
Three Filipina domestic helpers appeared in Eastern Court
Maricris G. Nones, said to be Carmelita’s niece; along with
Cristina N. Alagna, face 12 charges of handling stolen goods. A third
defendant, Marina G. Biala, face one count of the same charge.
The prosecution told Magistrate Bina Chainrai that it has
already consolidated the case against 45-year-old Carmelita, which is expected
to go the High Court because of the huge amount involved.
As a result, Carmelita’s guilty plea that she made on Nov 29
last year, when the value of her alleged loot was just over $1 million, was set
aside.
The prosecution did not give particulars of the new charges,
but merely said it was re-amending the first theft charge against the
defendant, and also amended charges 2 and 6. Four other charges were withdrawn.
The prosecutor told Chainrai no plea would be taken from Maricris,
Alagna and Biala. She also opposed bail for them, citing the serious nature of
their offense. The magistrate upheld the petition.
Chainrai then set the next hearing of the case to Aug 24 in
another court, pending its transfer to the Court of First Instance. She told
the accused to apply for legal aid before the move.
The magistrate also ordered Carmelita back in custody pending
the transfer of her own case to the CFI, said to be the biggest case of theft
ever brought against a foreign domestic helper in Hong
Kong .
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Nones was arrested on Sept 4, 2018 after her employer,
business executive David Liang, reported to police that two gold Piaget watches
worth a total of $200,000 that belonged to him and his wife were stolen between
Jul 27 and Aug 11, 2018.
Liang said the watches went missing inside his home at 70 Deepwater Bay Road
In subsequent hearings, the prosecution said about $1.1
million worth of additional items including gold and diamond necklaces and bracelets
belonging to Liang and his wife had been recovered from five pawnshops where
Nones had pawned them.
Nones pleaded guilty to the charges, but before Magistrate
Lam Tsz-kan could sentence her, a female lawyer for the Liangs arrived and
requested the court to wait as more jewelry pieces were said to be missing.
The value of the loot later increased to $4 million, and
then $9 million, as more pawnshop receipts in the names of three other persons
were recovered by investigators.
The prosecution said then that Nones had asked the three whose
names appeared in the pawnshop receipts, to help her dispose of the items.
In the last hearing on Jun 30, the value of the alleged stolen
items went up to $14.6 million, as the police reportedly discovered that a
total of 200 jewelry items had been stolen from the Liangs.
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