Family: "she was taking the stolen money back"

Monday 01 August 2016

The teenage daughter, brother and close friend of jailed mum Maria Fernandes all vow she was returning the £5,768 she had stolen, on the day she was arrested.

The three of them have spoken to Express, and given permission for a photo of Maria Fernandes to be published, in an bid to highlight her case, ahead of a probable appeal.

Fernandes was jailed last week for nine months after admitting the theft of £5,768 from a home on Old Beaumont Hill on May 19.

When she was arrested, the 36-year-old, who had no previous convictions, was found with the exact amount she had stolen four days previously in her handbag.

Her 13-year-old daughter, brother Manuel and close family friend Carolina Ferreira, discovered she had stolen the money after they found it in their flat in town. 

Her daughter said: “My mummy told me she was talking it back that day. Everyone deserves a second chance, don’t they?” 

Brother Manuel, 36, a construction worker in St Helier, said: “We found the money as it was just lying around and I know Maria was worried about it. I told her she must take it back as it was not hers. She couldn’t sleep. She knew she had done something wrong. On the day she went to work she said she was going to put it back where she had found it. The next thing we knew, she was being arrested.

“She knew she had done something wrong. She was returning it the next time she cleaned the house. I know that’s what she was going to do.”

Family friend Ms Ferrreira, who acts as an interpreter for the family, said Maria is a, “...brilliant mother and the hardest working person you could meet.”

“This is so upsetting because Maria is such a good person. She made a mistake. She took the money to pay for her father, who has just been diagnosed with cancer in Madeira. It was a wrong thing to do. She knew that. We discussed it, all three of us, and she said she was taking it back that day. Before she got the chance she was arrested.

“We are all really upset for her. She accepted what she did was bad. She won’t deny that. What she did was stupid and we told her it was not her money, take it back. She agreed. 

“It is so sad because nothing like this has happened to the family before. They are all very hard-working, just trying to make a better life for themselves.”

Fernandes’ brother said he was shocked when he found his sister had taken money from an employer’s house, but equally stunned when the court handed her an immediate custodial sentence. 

“I don’t think Maria thought she would go to jail,” said Manuel. “She certainly wasn’t told there was much of chance of that happening. We didn’t think that would happen as she walked to the court on Wednesday. I was amazed when told she had gone to jail. She stole the money, that was so wrong, but she is such a good mother and good sister.”

Ms Ferreira said the family have rallied around, but the stigma of the offence will always remain. 

“Maria is so embarrassed by this,” she said. “She sometimes gets up at 4am to go to work and often she will have a few breaks in the day but won’t finish cleaning until 10pm. She is always doing extra work. 

“Maria was fired straight away when the charges were made and she has been working around 35 hours a week doing private cleaning work since then. 

Manuel says the family came to Jersey because in Madeira there is simply no available employment. He said: “Maria and I both want to work. I work very hard and so does Maria. Back in Portugal there is no work. I enjoy it here and yet this has really been difficult. 

“People who know Maria know this was not in her character. She is so honest. She has never done anything wrong in her life. None of us have.”

Ms Ferreira said: “We are just hoping that Maria can come home soon. We have been told with good behaviour she may be out before Christmas. There is no question she will behave well in prison. She wouldn’t know how to behave badly.”

The family say they want to appeal against the severity of the sentence to the Royal Court. 

Ms Ferreira said: “If we can appeal I’m sure Maria would consider that. We all know she was taking the money back and would say so.

“We have had some people saying negative things, that she deserved the prison sentence, but on the whole I think most people agree with us that Maria deserved another chance. She has never been in trouble in her life. This is all so sad.”