SINGAPORE: A foreign domestic helper in Singapore who developed a gambling addiction siphoned off S$86,000 from her 75-year-old employer over several months, exploiting the trust placed in her and the vulnerability of an elderly household member. The helper has now been sentenced to one year and eight months’ imprisonment.
According to Singapore Eye (新加坡眼), which reported the case on Jan 19, 2026, the helper repeatedly took advantage of her employer while the woman was asleep, withdrawing cash late at night using the employer’s ATM card. The thefts took place from December 2024 to July 2025.
Court inquiries found that the domestic worker made 43 separate withdrawals of S$2,000 each, amounting to S$86,000. She also pawned her employer’s gold jewellery items without authorisation, two of which were later sold for over S$20,000.
The employer had trusted the helper enough to give her the only ATM card and had used it to withdraw S$2,000 in cash a month for household expenses. That confidence lasted until Jul 11, 2025, when the thefts came to light. At the time of her arrest, the helper had S$2,000 in cash on her person, which she admitted she had taken from her employer when the police arrived.
Investigators told the court that the helper’s actions were driven by a gambling addiction. Once she had access to money, she was unable to control her behaviour and repeatedly returned to the ATM, withdrawing fixed sums to fund her betting habit.
The court convicted her of criminal breach of trust and theft, sentencing her to one year and eight months in jail.
Domestic workers and financial abuse cases will always appear now and then, but this one is quite significant in its volume and the victim’s age. It highlights the hidden dangers that elderly Singaporeans, who depend heavily on caregivers and tend to put their full trust in them for everyday life and financial access, are naturally exposed to.
Some of these are laid out in the facts submitted to the court, which serve as a sobering reminder that gambling addiction can have consequences that extend well beyond just losing a lot of one’s own money, especially when it converges with trust, caregiving, and money.
