Businesswoman Zoe Heng watched with some relief as her former employee was taken away by plain clothes police officers on Monday.
Her ex-shop assistant, Ms Liu Meiqi, 33, had allegedly stolen cash and clothes worth $15,000 from her shop at the Central Mall in Clarke Quay.
Chinese daily Lianhe Wanbao reported yesterday that the police took Ms Liu away in handcuffs and later took her home to gather evidence.
Ms Liu was hired by Ms Heng in February and confessed a few weeks later that she had a criminal record for evading taxi fares.
Ms Heng said: “I knew about her past but I was really soft-hearted and thought that everyone deserved a second chance.”
“She told me her sob story and said that I was the only one who would be willing to help her.”
In March, Ms Liu was sentenced to 50 days’ jail after she could not pay the fines for 10 counts of evading taxi fares.
On a gut feeling, Ms Heng took precautions and installed a closed-circuit television camera in her shop.
“Many people warned me not to hire her again but I thought it would be fine since I had the CCTV,” she said.
Ms Liu worked at the shop from 5pm to 9pm and was paid $6 an hour.
In June, Ms Heng noticed that sales were poor and checked the CCTV footage. She was upset to find that Ms Liu had been stealing cash and clothes from the shop.
She reported her ex-employee to the police after realising that others had been cheated by her.
Source: www.tnp.sg
