An Ikeja Special Offences Court on Tuesday sentenced a house help, Comfort Jacob to four years imprisonment for stealing her employer’s money to the tune of N500,000 and 12,000 USD.
Justice Rahman Oshodi also sentenced Comfort’s husband, Isaac, to one year jail term for conspiring with his wife to steal from her employer.
Oshodi sentenced the couple to four years and one year respectively, following their plea bargain agreement to the amended two-count charge of stealing and conspiracy.
Oshodi said the offence Comfort committed represented a profound breach of trust.
According to him, Comfort was employed as a house help, a position that requires the utmost integrity and honesty.
He said: “Instead, you exploited your privileged access to your employer’s home to steal substantial sums of money.
“Such offences are regrettably prevalent in our society, where domestic workers abuse the confidence reposed in them by their employers.
“The impact of your actions extends beyond the financial loss and you have violated the sacred trust between employer and employee, potentially making other honest job seekers suffer suspicion and scrutiny due to your offence.
“Your actions undermine the very foundation of domestic employment relationships.”
The judge thereafter sentenced her to one year imprisonment on the count of conspiracy and three years on the charge of stealing.
Oshodi, however, said the sentencing should run concurrently and the sentencing should begin from April 13, 2022, the day of her remand.
The court further order that all items recovered from the convicts during the investigation be applied as restitution to the complainant, Mrs Omolara Dakore.
The convict’s were initially arraigned on a six-count information comprising conspiracy, breaking and entering a dwelling house, and stealing. upon their arraignment on May 10 2023.
They had pleaded not guilty and the Police Counsel, Mr Joseph Eboseremen had called an Investigation Police Officer (IPO), ASP Patrick Anthony, who testified as a prosecution witness one.
The prosecution, bearing the burden of proof under section 135(1) of the Evidence Act 2011, called one witness and tendered three documentary exhibits.
These included the convict’s confessional statements, which were admitted as Exhibits B and C following a trial-within-trial conducted to determine their admissibility.
The witness had testified that in the petition, the complainant submitted that she employed Comfort as a house help on Feb. 9, 2022.
“On February 11, 2022, when the complainant returned from church, she discovered that the house help was nowhere to be found and that a room she had locked before going to church was found open.
“The complainant subsequently discovered that over N500,000 and $12,000 contained in a white envelope were missing from the said room.
“One of the keys to the premises was also removed, and all efforts to locate Comfort were unsuccessful.
“Comfort’s number was given to the tracking section, and both the husband and wife were eventually arrested on April 12, 2022 at Benin City and they were brought back to Lagos for further investigation.”
According to the prosecution, the offences violate Sections 287(7) and 411 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.
