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A court in Moscow has sentenced housekeeper Lyudmila Farmer to five years in prison after finding her guilty of stealing luxury watches and cash, as well as committing fraud, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.
The Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow found Farmer guilty of fraud through abuse of trust and large-scale theft. She was sentenced to five years in a general-regime penal colony and ordered to pay a fine.
According to the court, Farmer had been hired to clean a two-storey apartment in Moscow that was undergoing renovations. In August 2023, taking advantage of the owners’ absence and the lack of supervision, she allegedly stole several luxury watches, including models from Rolex, Cartier and Audemars Piguet, as well as cash kept in a bedroom wardrobe.
Investigators said she later pawned some of the items. A Rolex Submariner was reportedly used as collateral for an 800,000-ruble loan, a Cartier watch for 200,000 rubles, another Rolex watch for 250,000 rubles, and an Audemars Piguet watch for a 900,000-ruble loan.
A pawnshop employee told the court that, when pledging the watches, Farmer claimed they belonged to her and her late husband, a British citizen. She allegedly stated that she was the former wife of a British lord in an attempt to facilitate the transactions.
Farmer denied the charges. She maintained that she had not stolen any property and claimed that she pawned the luxury watches and jewellery at the request of the apartment owner.