A FILIPINA woman was remanded in custody for three days yesterday on suspicion of stealing from her now deceased employer.
But the prosecution’s request for a full eight-day remand was quashed by Nicosia court Judge Charalambos Charalambous, who said that, bearing in mind the circumstances of the case, a remand of three days would suffice.
“On May 2 this year, we received a complaint from the daughter of the plaintiff, who told us that her father had died a month before and that they had found some things missing from his safe,” CID constable Perseas Hadjileontis told the court.
The court heard how both the deceased man’s wife and daughter noticed that three Swarovski crystal items were missing from his safe, as well as an unknown large cash sum, two expensive gold watches and some jewellery.
The daughter later told officers that she believed the cash in her father’s safe amounted to between £5,000 and £10,000.
The man’s 29-year-old Filipino housemaid knew where the key to the safe was, the daughter told police.
“According to the daughter, the housemaid left the house while they were searching through his belongings and did not take her personal things with her,” added Hadjileontis.
“She was immediately placed on the Alert list.”
According to police investigations, the housemaid had filed a complaint with the District Labour Department a week before, saying that she was having differences with her employer.
CID officers eventually tracked her down last Thursday outside the District Labour Department. After searching the room she had been staying in when she was working for the deceased man, officers reportedly found a handbag, belonging to her late employer, a pair of gold earrings and some other small items allegedly belonging to the daughter.
“When asked about the items in her room, the suspect replied that they weren’t hers and that she had no idea how they ended up in her room,” the constable said.
However, investigating officers failed to find anything incriminating at the maid’s current home in Kaimakli.
When read her rights and arrested, the woman told officers “I never took anything from my madam.”
The constable then requested an eight-day remand from the court saying that they had yet to get a statement from the suspect, that they needed to investigate the suspect’s background and were worried that the suspect may destroy any evidence.
Unimpressed with the constable’s statement, defence lawyer Pavlos Erotokritou continuously quizzed the officer over various aspects of his department’s investigation.
“You say, you need to do a background check,” asked Erotokritou. “Are you going to investigate in the Philipines?”
“No, but we need to find out who she knows here in Cyprus to see if she gave them any stolen times,” the officer replied.
The officer added that they had not found a translator to take the suspect’s statement during the 24 hours she was at Nicosia CID.
Agreeing that eight days was too long, Judge Charalambous said that there were some elements in the investigation that could have linked the suspect.
“A remand of three days is therefore ordered instead, bearing in mind the facts of the case and the preliminary stage of the investigation.”
