Trial-period maid stole Dh50,000 in jewellery from housewife, Dubai court hears

The Kazakh housewife said she told the Sri Lankan maid to clean her home to find out if she was suitable for full-time employment but found days later that her jewellery had been stolen.

DUBAI // A maid on trial for a full-time job robbed her prospective employer of about Dh50,000 worth of jewellery and other items.

Z B, 28, from Kazakhstan, said the accused had answered an advertisement she placed on the website Dubizzle.com.

“On June 7 this year, one woman responded and called me about the ad,” the housewife told prosecutors. “I asked her to come so I could try her out at work and she came four days after she called me.”

The housewife locked her bedroom and left her flat after asking the Sri Lankan maid, A A, 25, to clean the rest of the apartment.

“I returned a couple of hours later and opened my bedroom, then asked her to clean it. She finished and then left,” said the housewife, who asked the maid for her documents to start the hiring process.

A few days passed and the maid did not bring any documents nor did she answer the housewife’s calls. Z B then suspected that something was wrong. “I searched my bedroom and discovered that my jewellery was missing, so I called the police,” she said.

The maid told the police that she had stolen the valuable items and hidden them in a plastic bag inside her purse.

She also pleaded guilty to theft before the Dubai Criminal Court, but said that she did not steal a camera that was listed among the stolen items.

“When I was about to leave her flat she searched my purse but somehow didn’t see the stolen items,” the maid said.

Emirati policewoman N J, 46, said: “We found the stolen items in her room, but she claimed they belonged to her and that she purchased some of them from her country and the other half from the UAE.

“She said she possessed the receipts but she never presented them.”

A verdict is due on September 14.