Housemaids stuffed their underwear with stolen jewellery worth Dh200,000

Three-month sentences for Filipinas who took diamond-studded watches, gold bracelets and diamond earrings before going on the run.

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DUBAI // Two housemaids stuffed their underwear with stolen jewellery worth more than Dh200,000, a court was told yesterday. K L, 34, and K A, 31, both from the Philippines, confessed to the theft yesterday before Presiding Judge Hamad Abdel Latif of the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance, and asked to be deported. Fawzia al Zou'abi, 48, a Syrian housewife, told prosecutors that on May 30 her daughter called and said the housemaids were missing.

"When we went to check on the belongings inside the house, we were shocked to find two diamond-studded watches, two gold bracelets and diamond-studded earrings all worth Dh224,000 missing," she told prosecutors. A report was filed at Al Qusais police station and an all-points bulletin was issued to locate the maids on the run, records show. The women were found and arrested. "I was ordered to search the maids," the policewoman Mariam Khalil told prosecutors, "and recovered two bracelets stuffed inside K L's bra as well as a Rolex diamond studded ladies' watch and another diamond studded Chopard watch inside K A's bra."

Prosecutors also presented the court with a written confession from the two women that described how K L walked into the daughter's room and stole valuables while K A stood watch outside. K A said she stole the diamond-studded jewellery from a box on top of a wardrobe. The court issued its verdict swiftly and sentenced the women to three months in prison followed by deportation. @Email:amustafa@thenational.ae