May 31, 2011
Fined $6,000 for helping a friend illegally hire a maid
By Khushwant Singh
A FORMER manager of a maid employment agency was fined $6,000 for helping a friend hire a foreign domestic worker without a proper work pass.
A district court heard on Tuesday, that in early 2008, Ho Peng Hwee, 45, found out that Kelvin Ezekial Tan Wei Chih was looking for a maid to look after his two children and an ailing mother.
As his friend, who is said to be a taxi driver, failed to satisfy the minimum annual income requirement of $30,000 to hire a foreign maid, he and Tan hatched a plan to use the income tax documents and personal particulars of a businessman friend of Tan's.
Their plan succeeded and the Indonesian maid went to work at Tan's home from November 2008 till May the next year. Five months later, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) received a tip-off of the infringement. Tan has been fined $3,000 for his part of the plot.
Pleading for leniency for Ho on Tuesday, defence counsel Thangavelu said that his client had been out of a job for a year and has been suspended indefinitely by the MOM from operating a maid employment agency.
MOM prosecutor Gladys Tan informed the court that Ho could still have sought permission from the MOM to work in other maid employment agencies.
In passing sentence, District Judge Roy Neighbour noted that Ho was then a manager of a maid employment agency and should have known better than to commit the offence.
The court also took into account a second charge of furnishing false information to the MOM for the work permit for the maid to be approved. This charge was taken into consideration by the judge in meting out the sentence.
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