Dubai maid stole employer's Dh50,000 Cartier watch over shopping snub, court hears

Maid stole her employer's Dh50,000 Cartier watch because she was not allowed to go shopping, hears court.

DUBAI // A maid stole a Dh50,000 Cartier watch from her sponsor’s wife because she was not allowed to go shopping, a court heard yesterday.

Prosecutors said E?P, 33, a Filipina, took the diamond-encrusted watch as she left for the airport following the end of her five-year contract.

She was arrested as she was about to board a plane to Manilla on August 16.

Her sponsor S?A, 42, an Emirati, said he and his wife discovered the watch was missing shortly after the maid left. They called her while she was still at the airport and she confessed to stealing it.

Under interrogation the woman said she asked to go shopping for gifts before her return flight home, but was prevented from doing so by her sponsor’s wife.

“I took the watch from her closet in their Jumeirah villa to get back at her because she did not allow me to go shopping,” said the maid.

She added that she did not know the value of the watch when she stole it and that she had never stolen anything before.

She was not present at the Dubai Criminal Court to enter a plea to the charge of theft. The case was adjourned to September 10 to summon her.