Maid gets jail after memorising elderly woman's ATM card PIN and withdrawing S$18,000
A customer withdraws Singapore dollar notes from an ATM. (File photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman)
SINGAPORE: A maid hired by a man to care for his mother instead stole the elderly woman's ATM card and used it to withdraw S$18,000 over 36 occasions.
Indonesian national Anastasia Paba, 35, was sentenced to 25 weeks' jail on Tuesday (Feb 15) for a charge each of theft and theft in dwelling.
The court heard that Paba began working for the 79-year-old victim's son in November 2020. She cleaned the flat daily, including the victim's bedroom, and formed an intention to steal her United Overseas Bank (UOB) card to withdraw money.
Paba would accompany the victim to the ATM to withdraw cash whenever she needed to. She noticed the elderly woman keying in her PIN passcode and found out what it was during one such transaction.
Between Dec 16, 2021, and Jan 19, 2022, Paba stole the UOB card from the victim's handbag multiple times while she was cleaning the house.
She withdrew a total of S$18,000 from the elderly woman's bank account, taking S$500 each time over 36 occasions.
The bank account was a joint one shared by the victim and her daughter. The victim's daughter discovered that cash was being withdrawn consistently from the account and asked the victim about it.
The victim then confronted Paba, who admitted to stealing the card and withdrawing the cash. The victim's son called the police in January 2022, saying that his maid took his mother's money and ran away. The stolen cash was not recovered.
The prosecutor sought four to six months' jail for one of the theft charges and left the sentence for the other offence to the court. He said the amount involved was significant at S$18,000, and that there was a persistent course of offending with serious abuse of trust.
Despite Paba's clean record, she cannot be seen as a first-time offender, he said.
In mitigation, Paba said she was sorry. "I am really sorry for my mistake, I plead for the lighter sentence," she said from her place of remand.
For theft in dwelling, she could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined. For theft, she could have been jailed for up to three years, fined, or both.
