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Joyce Man

Former Miss Hong Kong runner-up Winnie Chin Wai-yee  was having none of it when she was accused of firing 45 maids in five years.
Not so, declared the wife of socialite banker Philip Ma Ching-yeung: in fact the number of her helpers who left was more like 30 - and not all of them were fired.
Suggestions that she habitually hurled obscenities at her Filipino helpers, calling them [expletive] idiots with no brains, were also false, she told Eastern Court.
Chin was replying to barrister Ody Lai,  representing three of her ex-maids.
The former maids are accused of stealing 149 items of designer-label children's clothes and shoes worth HK$23,000 from Chin's home in Kam Yuen Mansion  on Old Peak Road in October and November. 
Marites Alberto Saddaran,  34, Aubrey Leal Garcia,  25, and Ginavilla Velasco Gongob,  41, deny they stole anything and say Chin gave the items to Saddaran to dispose of as she chose.
Chin, the Miss Hong Kong runner-up in 1981, said the '30-odd' maids who had left included some hired for another, 20,000-square-foot family property as well as her home. She fired some for not meeting her standards, but some left by mutual consent or resigned and many completed their contracts, she said.
But Lai, cross-examining Chin, said figures from the Philippines Consulate showed 45 Filipino helpers entered and left her employment from 2004 to this year.
She said Chin had earned a reputation for terminations and that many helpers had left because she had a bad attitude. 
Lai accused Chin of calling her Filipino maids '[expletive] idiots with no brains' about three times a day and saying all Filipinos are '[expletive] domestic helpers'. Chin denied the accusations.
Asked whether two other former employees had taken cases against her to the Labour Tribunal and won, Chin said one had won but she did not know about the other.
Saddaran, Garcia and Gongob are alleged to have stolen 79 shirts, 47 pairs of trousers, 15 pairs of shoes, three skirts, three jackets and two rucksacks belonging to Chin's daughter and two sons. The items taken by Saddaran are said to have been worth HK$10,000, Garcia HK$8,000 and Gongob HK$5,000.
Chin told the court earlier that on November 3, as she was tidying shoes in a cabinet with Saddaran and Garcia, she saw Saddaran place a pair of Adidas shoes under a bed. Chin confronted her, police were called, and they found the other items in the maids' rooms. 
Lai put it to Chin that on that day she had been clearing items to make space for her new shopping acquisitions, saying Chin shopped five times a day, so much so that her husband told her to stop her shopping addiction. Chin disagreed.
Police constable Chan Tsz-shun  told the court Saddaran had admitted she stole the items when she was arrested. But under cross-examination, Chan, whose highest qualification in English was an E grade in the A-levels, admitted that Saddaran, who was speaking in English without an interpreter, had used the words 'took' or 'got' instead of 'stole'. 
Chin has appeared in a number of movies, including 1983's Hong Kong Playboys and 1985's Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Stars. She moved to Canada in 1990 but later returned. Chin and Ma, one of the Tai Sang Bank's  Ma clan, were married in 1995. 
Chin is not the first celebrity to have been accused of firing large numbers of helpers.
Canto-pop star Jacky Cheung Hok-yau  was accused in 2007 of sacking 21 in three years. 
The Philippine consulate has a blacklist of substandard employers. It has previously placed Cheung and his wife, former actress May Lo Mei-mei,  on it and banned them from hiring maids for one year.
The trial continues before Magistrate Henry Mierczak  today, with Saddaran testifying in her defence.




Tai-tai denies firing 45 maids in five years