Two employees of the Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra hotel were charged with theft yesterday afternoon after being accused of stealing diamond jewellery and cash worth more than $140,000 from a high-ranking military official while he was taking a steam and getting a massage at the hotel’s sauna, authorities said.

Keo Socheath, vice prosecutor at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, said that Nuth Sareth, a 32-year-old woman who worked in the sauna, and Samrith Reaksmey, a 34-year-old man who worked as a swim instructor, were charged with “stealing”.

“And now they have been sent to prison,” Socheath said yesterday evening.

A penal police officer in the Ministry of Interior who declined to be named said the pair were arrested on January 16 after Lieutenant General Seak Socheath, who is deputy chief of staff in the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and also in charge of border affairs at the Ministry of National Defence, filed a complaint to the Ministry of Interior.

Sareth and Reaksmey could not be reached for comment yesterday, and neither could management at the Sofitel.