By Manmohan Singh

I AGREE with Mrs Lilian Lim's view on Thursday ("False police report - After she confessed, I still had to pay to repatriate her. How does the law protect employers?") and wish to relate my experience which also illustrates how maids disadvantage employers by exploiting the use of police reports.

My maid showed signs of self-inflicted distress and we sympathised with her.

She was underweight and ignored our appeal to eat more, replying that her husband left her because she was overweight.

Each morning, she told us she wanted to go to Serangoon Road to look for her "husband".

Despite our attempts to accommodate her, she subsequently asked for a transfer and we willingly took her to the agent.

But no employer wanted to hire her and one weekend, she ran away.

Subsequently she telephoned me and asked to be repatriated. We agreed.

Following the phone call, she sent a letter to my family, signing off as slain Pakistani leader "Benazir Bhutto" and "Princess Diana".

We realised she had lodged a police report only when the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) called and told my entire family to report for an investigation.

The maid had alleged that we had assaulted her. After two sessions, an ever-professional MOM dropped the case.

It was a different story with the police report. Although we produced written evidence that we were not at home at the time of the alleged assaults and showed the police her bizarre letters, the police were not convinced.

The investigating officer even came to my home with a team to snap photographs of the place where the alleged assaults occurred.

Then, out of the blue, I received a call telling me to buy a plane ticket to repatriate the maid.

The supervisor of the home in which the maid was placed told me she had appealed to the police to send the maid back as she and her staff could not handle her.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.