Indonesian Citizen In Singapore Imprisoned For Memorizing His Employer's ATM PIN And Withdrawing 18 Thousand Dollars

ATM Illustration (Photo by Eduardo Soares on Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Anastasia Paba, an Indonesian citizen who works as a household member in Singapore, was sentenced to 25 weeks in prison by the court. She was proven to withdraw money from her employer's ATM a total of 18 thousand Singapore dollars.

Quoted from Channel News Asia, Tuesday, February 15, Anastasia Paba started working for the 79-year-old victim's son in November 2020. Her job is to clean the flat every day, including the victim's bedroom.

This is where the evil intentions arise. She then stole the victim's United Overseas Bank (UOB) card to withdraw money. The question is, how can Paba know her employer's PIN?

Paba used to accompany the victim to the ATM to withdraw cash. It was here that she often noticed the old woman entering her PIN passcode.

Between December 16, 2021, and January 19, 2022, Paba stole a UOB card from the victim's handbag several times while she was cleaning the house.

She withdrew a total of S$18,000 from the old woman's bank account, withdrawing S$500 each time over 36 times.

The bank account is a joint account between the victim and her daughter. The victim's daughter found that cash was consistently withdrawn from the account and asked the victim about it.

The victim then confronts Paba, who admits to stealing the card and withdrawing cash. The victim's son called the police in January 2022, saying that his maid took his mother's money and ran away. The stolen money is not returned.

Prosecutors demanded four to six months in prison for one of the theft charges and handed over the sentence for the other offense to the court. He said the amount involved was significant at S$18,000, and that there had been ongoing breaches with serious abuse of trust.

Although Paba's record is clean, she cannot be seen as a first-time offender, he said.

"I'm really sorry for my mistake, I beg for a lighter sentence," Paba said from her place of detention.