Indian-origin couple jailed for abusing maid, obstructing justice in Singapore

An Indianorigin couple was on Friday jailed by a Singapore court for repeat offences relating to the hiring of a maid despite being blacklisted by the Ministry of Manpower MOM and obstructing justice local media reported Syed Mohamed Peeran Syed Ameer Hamza who circumvented the MOM blacklist by using his business associates identity to hire an Indonesian domestic worker was jailed 36 weeks or about eight monthsThe 41yearold Singaporean pleaded guilty midway through a trial to one charge each of obstructing justice and instigating his associate to give false information to secure a work pass His spouse Sabah Parveen a 37yearold permanent resident from India was jailed for three days after similarly pleading guilty to obstruction of justice The couples Indonesian maid Aminah reported that she was mistreated by the coupleAnother charge of failing to pay all of Aminahs salary was taken into consideration for sentencing according to a report by TODAY newspaper District Judge Jennifer Marie granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal for a charge that the couple each faced failing to ensure Aminah was given adequate rest every day This means that they can be prosecuted for these offences in the future for example if new evidence emergesThe couple cried in the dock as their sentences were readout Sabah began serving her sentence immediately while Syed will do so on January 7 in order to take care of their two young children and settle some work matters said the TODAY report The court heard that in 2014 Sabah was charged with three counts of voluntarily causing hurt against their domestic worker at the time However the charges were compounded when she paid SGD5000 in compensation which included a flight ticket to the worker thenIn May 2015 Syed learned that he and his household had been placed on a blacklist for hiring foreign domestic workers until June 30 2019 He then wrote to MOM in a bid to lift the ban but this was rejected In early 2018 he recruited Aminah She was in Indonesia at the time Then in July that year he circumvented the ban by persuading his associate to apply for inprinciple approval for Aminah to be employed as a domestic worker in Singapore This was the first step in the work pass applicationSyed got Suresh Murugaiyan an Indian origin associate in Singapore to falsely indicate to MOM to be Aminahs employer MOMs Work Pass System automatically approved Sureshs application If Syed or his household members had used the system it would have automatically prevented their application from going through the court heard Aminah arrived in Singapore on July 17 2018 and began working for Syed and Sabah Shortly afterwards Syed convinced Suresh to submit formal work permit declaration forms which again stated that Suresh was Aminahs employerThe work permit application was approved on August 14 2018 In January 2019 the family made preparations to move to Hong Kong Aminah thought she would be taken there as well though she did not wish to go She relayed her situation to another domestic worker living in the same condominium complex in the Balestier housing estate The other woman gave her the number for the Centre for Domestic Employees which then informed MOM When the ministry called Aminah and asked her to give her employers information she said that she was afraid A MOM investigation officer then referred the case to the policeOn January 24 2019 police officers visited Syeds home twice in rapid succession Syed answered the door both times insisting that he had not employed a domestic worker and that it was just him and his family living there Sabah witnessed this and realised her husband could be under investigation Syed then asked Aminah to hide in a bathroom before confronting her and asking why she had called the police and ldquogiven them a big problemrdquo He bought a flight ticket for her to return to Jakarta Indonesia that same night using Sabahs credit cardAminah was given some time to pack and was paid SGD1000 of her overdue salary She had been paid for the first three months of work and not paid for at least two more months The couple then asked two neighbours who did not know what was happening to help Syed take Aminahs luggage down He accompanied Aminah to the airport where she left for Jakarta Deputy Public Prosecutor DPP Chong Kee En told the court that after ldquosome quick investigative workrdquo the police and MOM realised that Suresh was not Aminahs employerSyed denied employing or knowing her refusing to surrender his and spouse passports and saying that he would not leave Singapore However he bought flight tickets soon after his interview with the police attempting to leave on the same day before being stopped at the airport Before Syed tried to leave the police had placed the couple on a stoplist which alerts the authorities to stop certain individuals from leaving SingaporeAminah returned to Singapore in July 2019 and more details came to light then said DPP Chong He sought nine months jail for Syed and a custodial term for Sabah pointing out that Aminah had worked for the family for six months despite the blacklist being in effect Syeds lawyer Rachel Soh said in mitigation that he had hired Aminah out of concern for his family He was working as a consultant in Hong Kong at the time and wanted to support them in his absence Soh addedRepresenting Sabah lawyer Jeremy Pereira told the court that Sabah did not know what her husband had done until police officers showed up at their door This put her in an ldquounenviable situationrdquo of having to report him to the police or keep silent He could also have blamed her for his arrest Pereira said Those convicted of obstruction of justice in Singapore can be jailed for up to seven years or fined or bothThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever