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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - 2 Indonesian maids lied to ministry </TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right>
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->TWO Indonesian maids who became the first to trick the Manpower Ministry (MOM) into conducting false investigations were jailed three months each yesterday.
Ratih Puspita Sari, 32, lied to the MOM that she was moonlighting at a foodstall in a bid to place both the stall-owner as well as her own employer in a fix.
In the second case, Adminah, 29, lied that her boss Yeo Lay Hiong owed her $4,164 in unpaid wages when she was owed only $290.
Maids have been prosecuted before for making false police reports. But Ratih's case is the first brought before the courts where the MOM's employment inspectors were duped in this way by a foreign maid, said MOM prosecutor Joanne Wee.
All this because Ratih was unhappy with her current employer and was unable to get a transfer elsewhere.
She made two false statements in November last year claiming she worked as a dishwasher at a fishball mince meat noodle stall in Jalan Bukit Merah on three occasions and earned $10 per hour.
But MOM investigations that followed did not bear out her claims, and three months later, she admitted lying.
Ms Wee asked the court to impose a deterrent sentence, pointing out that Ratih had led its officers on a 'wild goose chase'. Because of this, Ratih's boss and alleged employer went through 'the rigours of statement-taking' and 'unwarranted trauma'.
The prosecutor said investigation officers were not meant to 'serve as tools for scheming individuals (like Ratih) who perpetrated her lies for personal gain'.
In the other case, Adminah made a second false statement last December that she did not sign a salary voucher for $3,000. An MOM probe showed that she had actually been paid $3,000 in October at the HarbourFront Ferry Terminal and that she had signed the voucher.
MOM prosecutor Sirlina Sirabas said the lies 'resulted in a waste of precious resources' and subjected her employer to a criminal probe. Both maids could have been fined up to $15,000 or jailed up to a year or both.
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->TWO Indonesian maids who became the first to trick the Manpower Ministry (MOM) into conducting false investigations were jailed three months each yesterday.
Ratih Puspita Sari, 32, lied to the MOM that she was moonlighting at a foodstall in a bid to place both the stall-owner as well as her own employer in a fix.
In the second case, Adminah, 29, lied that her boss Yeo Lay Hiong owed her $4,164 in unpaid wages when she was owed only $290.
Maids have been prosecuted before for making false police reports. But Ratih's case is the first brought before the courts where the MOM's employment inspectors were duped in this way by a foreign maid, said MOM prosecutor Joanne Wee.
All this because Ratih was unhappy with her current employer and was unable to get a transfer elsewhere.
She made two false statements in November last year claiming she worked as a dishwasher at a fishball mince meat noodle stall in Jalan Bukit Merah on three occasions and earned $10 per hour.
But MOM investigations that followed did not bear out her claims, and three months later, she admitted lying.
Ms Wee asked the court to impose a deterrent sentence, pointing out that Ratih had led its officers on a 'wild goose chase'. Because of this, Ratih's boss and alleged employer went through 'the rigours of statement-taking' and 'unwarranted trauma'.
The prosecutor said investigation officers were not meant to 'serve as tools for scheming individuals (like Ratih) who perpetrated her lies for personal gain'.
In the other case, Adminah made a second false statement last December that she did not sign a salary voucher for $3,000. An MOM probe showed that she had actually been paid $3,000 in October at the HarbourFront Ferry Terminal and that she had signed the voucher.
MOM prosecutor Sirlina Sirabas said the lies 'resulted in a waste of precious resources' and subjected her employer to a criminal probe. Both maids could have been fined up to $15,000 or jailed up to a year or both.
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