Indonesian maid jailed for violent robbery on Hong Kong boss

Mar 19, 2010, 4:34 GMT

Hong Kong - An Indonesian maid who carried out a violent robbery on her elderly Hong Kong employer started Friday a 40-month jail sentence.

Nur Hayati, 27, appeared in court Thursday for sentencing after earlier pleading guilty to one count of robbery carried out in December.

Hayati, wearing a mask and armed with a fruit knife, sneaked into her 79-year-old employer's bedroom while she was sleeping, a court was told.

She then sat on her boss, Tan Wai-bing, grabbing her neck and forcing a towel into her mouth to gag her, breaking two teeth in the process.

The maid took a gold necklace and two jade pendants and smashed a window with a brick to make it look like an intruder had committed the crime.

When police grew suspicious, she claimed it was her boyfriend who had escaped through the window.

Her defence claimed she had acted in frustration because her boss had picked on her and failed to pay her wage the previous month.

However, the judge decided to jail Hayati, saying she had committed the crime out of greed and had breached her employer's trust.

Hong Kong is home to more than 200,000 live-in maids from the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand who earn a mandatory minimum wage of around 460 US dollars a month.