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The Superior Court acquitted a Filipino domestic worker who was jailed for 12 months by a district judge for stealing her 89-year-old employer’s ATM cards and withdrawing a total of $ 8,000 from her bank accounts.
Portela Vilma Jiménez, now 50, was convicted of 10 counts of theft by District Judge Jasvender Kaur earlier this year, for stealing two ATM cards belonging to Mr. Yong Choon Hiong and making eight unsuccessful withdrawals. $ 1,000 authorized each of your bank accounts.
The withdrawals, which were captured on closed circuit television (CCTV) footage, were made six times between January 13, 2017 and February 8, 2017. Seven transactions involved the United Overseas Bank’s ATM card. Mr. Yong, and one got hold of your POSB ATM Card.
Both the prosecution and the defense did not dispute that the withdrawals had taken place.
But Deputy Prosecutor Sia Jiazheng said Jiménez had done so without Yong’s knowledge after stealing the ATM cards.
His lawyers, Mr. Suang Wijaya and Ms. Syazana Yahya, said that he was allowed to make the withdrawals in exchange for sexual favors given to his elderly employer.
High Court Judge Chua Lee Ming, who heard the appeal and overturned the conviction, has not issued a written judgment. But Ms. Jiménez’s attorneys said that Judge Chua disagreed that the prosecution had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Yong did not provide her with the ATM cards.
Ms. Jiménez, who had worked in Singapore and Kuwait for 20 years, worked for Mr. Yong and his wife from December 2015 to April 2017.
Yong had said that he first discovered the unauthorized withdrawals from his account when he received his January 2017 bank statements in February of that year.
He made a police report later, as he was told that he would not be able to see the CCTV footage without one.
However, Mr. Wijaya and Ms. Syazana said that he had swiped their ATM cards and written his PIN number on a piece of paper for Ms. Jiménez, so that she could withdraw money in exchange for sexual favors. They maintained that Mr. Yong had agreed to pay him $ 500 each time, and that he was paid four times for this.
They also said that Mr. Yong had made a police report because he had lied to his family about the unauthorized removals after they found out.
Judge Kaur, who convicted Ms Jiménez, said the crimes were committed against an elderly “vulnerable victim”, and also found that her evidence was riddled with inconsistencies.
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