(DPA) 21 December 2004, HONG KONG - A Sri Lankan maid jailed after being falsely accused of stealing a pair of sandals from her Hong Kong employer has won 30,000 US dollars compensation, a news report said Tuesday.

Godagan Deniyalage Prema spent 19 days in prison after being convicted in 2002 of stealing the sandals before being released on bail pending her appeal, the South China Morning Post reported.

At a hearing Monday, a judge ruled her employer and employment agency conspired to prosecute Godagan for stealing the sandals, which were in fact a gift from her employer.

Judge Gerard Muttrie awarded her 240,000 Hong Kong dollars (30,000 US dollars) compensation for her ordeal and for the fact she was unable to work while her case went through the courts.

Godagan only worked for her employer Cheung Kwan-fong for a month, and Cheung refused to pay her one month’s notice or to give her an air ticket home when she dismissed her, the newspaper said.

Cheung reported Godagan for theft when the sandals earlier given as a gift were found in the maid’s suitcase as she prepared to leave the employer’s home in Hong Kong’s Fanling district.

Her conviction was set aside in February by an appeals court judge, who he found there had been material non-disclosure by the prosecution, the newspaper reported.

More than 200,000 women from the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka work as live-in maids for Hong Kong families, earning a government-set minimum wage of 420 US dollars a month.