Freelance cleaner gets jail for stealing after hirer catches her using planted dollar notes
The employer installed a surveillance camera and later caught the worker with S$150 taken from her bag.
A photo illustration of a cleaner taking cash from a wallet. (Photo: iStock)
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SINGAPORE: A woman who hired a freelance cleaner to tidy her apartment once a week began suspecting the worker of theft, so she planted dollar notes in her bag after writing down their serial numbers.
When the cleaner came as usual one day, three of the S$50 (US$39) notes went missing. The employer confronted her and matched the serial numbers of the three notes in the cleaner’s pocket to the numbers she had recorded, before calling the police.
Nant Aye Thandar Soe, a 30-year-old woman from Myanmar, was sentenced to two weeks’ jail on Monday (Jun 15) for one count of theft.
The court heard that the victim, a 35-year-old Singaporean woman, engaged Helpling, a house-cleaning service, in September 2025.
The company assigned Nant Aye Thandar Soe to do the job at the victim’s home.
She cleaned the flat every Thursday and had access to all the rooms while doing so.
On May 27 this year, the victim realised that some money was missing from her bag and suspected the cleaner.
The next day, she installed a closed-circuit television camera in her flat.
She also placed 20 S$50 notes in her bag, taking down their serial numbers before placing the bag in a corner of her room.
At about 6.30pm on May 28, the cleaner arrived at the flat. About 40 minutes later, she spotted the victim’s bag with its zip open.
She removed the victim’s wallet from the bag, took three S$50 notes and placed them in her pocket.
At about 8pm that day, the victim checked her bag and found that three notes were missing.
She confronted the cleaner, who took out four S$50 notes from her pocket.
The victim matched the serial numbers she had recorded to three of the notes. The fourth belonged to the cleaner.
The victim then called the police.
For theft, the worker could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined.
CNA has contacted Helpling for more information.
Source: CNA/ll(sf)
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