By Vir B. Lumicao
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| Bilolo admitted taking the cash from her employer's locked drawer |
A Filipina domestic helper was sentenced to 10 months in
prison today, May 25, after she admitted stealing more than $170,000 cash from
her employer on
Jonavel Bilolo, 32, pleaded guilty to a charge of theft when she appeared before Eastern Magistrate Peter Law this afternoon.
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The prosecution said Bilolo was arrested by police on May 23 after her employer, Lai Zhang Xiao Zhu, caught the helper in the act of opening a locked drawer in her bedroom where she had been keeping a large amount of money.
Lai said the stolen cash consisted of HK$80,000, US$6,000 and 5,000 euros. She said it was her practice to make rolls of ten $100 bills, ten US$100 bills and ten 100 euro bills for easy accounting. She locked them in the drawer and kept the key in a bag in her room.
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The 70-year-old insurance agent told police that since Apr 16, some of the money rolls had gone missing. On May 23, she saw Bilolo enter the bedroom and unlock the drawer with her key. She immediately confronted the helper, who admitted taking her cash.
Lai reported the theft to the police and Bilolo was arrested. The helper admitted taking the cash between Apr 24 and May 17 to repay some outstanding debt, the prosecution said.
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The prosecutor said Lai was asking the court for a compensation
order for $173,000, as the stolen money was neither recovered nor returned.
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| The employer kept rolled-up paper bills in different currencies |
During mitigation, the duty lawyer who represented Bilolo
said his client separated from her husband 10 years ago and was childless. She
came to
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Sometime ago, a friend of Bilolo needed money and asked her to guarantee a loan she was taking from a lending company. She said the friend failed to pay up and debt collectors came to the employer’s house pressuring her to repay the loan.
Out of fear, the defendant was forced to steal from her employer, the lawyer said. He said Bilolo would like to make compensation but was unable to do so. She also would like to apologize to Lai, he said. He cited his client’s pleading guilty as her only mitigation.
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Magistrate Law told Bilolo there had been other cases of breach of trust, but her stealing more than $170,000 from her employer was a very serious one.
In sentencing, the magistrate said the one-third discount in sentence he had given the defendant for her guilty plea was the most he could grant.
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