Indian housemaid in Nicosia hung out to dry

A female housemaid from India was ordered to pay a €500 fine after a judge found her guilty of stealing €20 from her employers, a charge she vehemently denies to this day.

The 24-year-old Indian housekeeper was accused back in 2017 of stealing €20 from her employers, former police chief Tasos Panayiotou and his wife, where she lived and worked at their residence.

According to local reports at the time, the wife said she suspected the housekeeper had been stealing from them and in order to test her theory, the couple made copies of three €20 bills in order to see whether their suspicions were valid.

The court heard that one of the three bills was found under the housekeeper’s mattress, while it was not clear whether it had been found by the wife, the husband, or both.

The case was filed in November 2017 in the Nicosia District Court with the housemaid vehemently denying the charges. The prosecutor initially requested that bail be set at €5000 and that the defendant report to police three times a week.

The plaintiffs requested through the prosecutor that the defendant remain behind bars until her trial but bail was finally set at €500, and the defendant was released and began living on donations from friends and strangers.

Hung out to dry

On Wednesday, the maid’s current defence attorney told the court that her client had suffered greatly from this ordeal, saying she was essentially punished since November 2017 when the case was filed, leaving her without income and a place to live.

The court sentenced the maid to a €500 fine, which included €200 fine for the offence and €300 court fees and expenses. The defence attorney suggested that the bail money be used instead of additional cash, with the court agreeing with the defendant’s lawyer.

“The offence in question is serious because it has to do with abusing trust, which must always exist between the employer and the employee,” the judge said.

Maid rejected plea deal

According to local media, the previous defence lawyer Demetris Pavlides had told the court that the employers were willing to drop the charges if the maid would agree to buy a plane ticket and leave Cyprus.

The maid turned down the offer saying she was innocent.

Knews reached Pavlides on Thursday but he declined to answer any questions, saying as a rule he did not want to make any comments to the media.