A maid, who had an affair with her employer's husband and had consensual sex with him on two occasions, later lied to the police, claiming that the man had raped her.

The court heard that Sumaini, 29, who goes by one name, made the false allegation hoping that it would help her return to Indonesia, which her employer was not letting her do.

She was jailed for 14 days yesterday after admitting that she had given false information to a police officer attached to the Serious Sexual Crime Branch of the Criminal Investigation Department.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Gregory Gan said the man's wife alerted the police on Feb 7 that Sumaini had been "sexually abused".

The woman accompanied Sumaini to Police Cantonment Complex for an interview and the maid told the policeman at around 6pm that her employer's husband had raped her on Jan 15.

Officers arrested the man 45 minutes later and he was taken to a lock-up at Police Cantonment Complex.

The DPP said that after recording Sumaini's statement, the policeman checked her mobile phone and discovered messages exchanged on Facebook Messenger between the maid and her employer's husband.

These messages included one from Sumaini stating that she missed the man and suggested that they were in a relationship.

The policeman confronted Sumaini with the messages and she finally came clean at around 10pm.

The man was released about an hour later.

The DPP said that after recording Sumaini's statement, the policeman checked her mobile phone and discovered messages exchanged on Facebook Messenger between the maid and her employer's husband.

The DPP told District Judge Luke Tan: "The accused admitted that she decided to tell the truth after being confronted with the messages.

"She said that she lied about the rape allegation because she wanted to return to Indonesia but (the man's wife) refused to allow her to do so."

Yesterday, DPP Gan urged the judge to sentence Sumaini to between 10 days and two weeks' jail, stressing that her lies caused an innocent man to spend time in a lock-up.

The maid, who was unrepresented, said she was remorseful and had realised her mistake.

For giving false information to the police, she could have been jailed for up to a year and fined up to $5,000.