Public Prosecutor Wayan Empu Guana Pura in his statement at a Denpasar District Court session here on Tuesday, said the defendant, Yayuk Winarsih (34), had been convincingly proven guilty of theft, and that, in accordance with relevant articles in the Criminal Code, she should be sentenced to six months in jail minus the time she had spent in preventive custody.
In previous court sessions, Yayuk had persistently denied the charge of having stolen Rp20,000 from a co-worker at Ramayana Robinson department store where she had worked for more than 10 years. She claimed she had been framed.
Yayuk ended up in court after the co-worker whose money she was accused of having stolen, Putu Ayu Febri Franthini, reported her to the police.
Putu told the court in her testimony that in January 2010 she often found the amount of money in her purse to have become less than what she had put into it without her having spent any part of the money. She suspected somebody had been stealing from her and that the thief was Yayuk.
To obtain proof of her suspicion, Putu and another employee, Sumerta, carried out a scheme to trap the thief. They made four photocopies of a Rp20,000 banknote and put them in the store`s "office casa", a drawer to safekeep employees` purses.
After the store had closed, Yayuk and two other cashiers made purchases in the store and made their cash payments at a counter served by Putu. The latter made it a point to separate the bills used by Yayuk to pay for her purchase from those used by the other cashiers.
Later, Putu compared the banknote used by Yayuk to pay her bill with the genuine Rp20,000 banknote of which she had made photocopies and found that the serial number on the banknote Yayuk had handed in was the same as that on the genuine Rp20,000 banknote, namely ODL727822.
Putu then reported her finding to the store management and Yayuk was summarily fired. When Yayuk tried to dispute her discharge, Putu reported the case to the police.
In the court trials, Yayuk was defended by a team of nine lawyers from the Peradi legal aid institute in Denpasar. (HAJM)
Editor: Ade P Marboen
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
