DUBAI // A Finnish woman poured hot coffee over one of her maid’s hands after claiming to have found alcohol in the Filipina’s room, the Court of Misdemeanours heard yesterday.
J R, 35, suffered first-degree burns from the incident, but her sponsor, C S, 52, said she did not know who poured the coffee.
The maid reported her sponsor to police on February 10.
She said that her boss had come to her room two days earlier and told her to pack her belongings because she was going to send her to jail.
“When I asked her about the reason, she told me I didn’t have to know why,” the maid said.
She then picked up her phone to call a friend but her sponsor tried to snatch it out of her hand. “When I refused to give her the phone, she poured a cup of hot coffee on my hand,” said the woman.
She then went to the Iranian Hospital where she was told she had first-degree burns.
J R told prosecutors that she was scared when her sponsor said she was handing her over to police. After the woman poured coffee on her hand she ran out of the villa with her sponsor giving chase.
The sponsor, who pleaded not guilty to assault, said the maid had worked at her house for three months before the incident, when J R had taken her day off but did not return on time.
“She was late and when I went to her room I found alcohol in there,” said the woman.
“I locked my Jumeirah villa door and shortly after, she called me to open up the door. So I did and asked to pack her things because I didn’t want her any more.”
She said the maid refused to pack her items.
“She called her friend and I left her in her room to attend a business meeting to return later and find out that she had absconded,” said the sponsor, who cancelled the maid’s visa before going on a business trip to Qatar.
The sponsor was arrested at Dubai Airport on her return. She said the coffee claim was a story to extort money.
“I think she claimed that to have me give her money because she knows I have a lot of money,” she told prosecutors.
C S was fined Dh1,100.
salamir@thenational.ae
