Terrible pair punished

Judge sentences Qns. couple who beat housekeeper for stealing

A Queens couple who beat, burned and held a housekeeper against her will after they accused her of stealing from them were sentenced Tuesday in separate appearances before the same judge.

Devanand Lachman, 35, pleaded guilty to second-degree kidnapping and received 10 years behind bars from Justice Robert Kohm, followed by five years of postrelease supervision.

His wife, Ambar Lachman, also 35, pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment and received five years’ probation.

The terrible twosome was arrested for the Feb. 13, 2015, incident that began when Devanand Lachman accused the couple’s housekeeper, Daisy Machuca, then 54, of stealing money and a gold chain from their Bayside home.

When Machuca denied the theft, Devanand Lachman punched the woman several times, took her cell phone and wallet, and, along with an unidentified accomplice, threatened Machuca with knives and a gun, prosecutors said.

After Ambar Lachman came home, she watched her husband torture Machuca by burning her feet with a blowtorch — then threatened to kill the housekeeper if she didn’t tell her where the stolen items were.

Ambar Lachman later took the victim’s keys and searched for the cash and jewelry at her Long Island home, but never found them.

Machuca, who worked for the couple only a few months, was set free after several hours and called the cops on her employers.

The accomplice was never apprehended, according to prosecutors.

“I thought they would kill me," Machuca told the Daily News days after the ordeal.

“The victim in this case was brutalized by the male defendant, who struck her several times and held her against her will. The female defendant aided her husband in this heinous crime,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement Tuesday.

“The defendants suspected their housekeeper... had stolen from their home. But the real crime in this case occurred when the defendants decided to take the law into their own hands by abducting the woman.”

Outside Queens Criminal Court, Devanand Lachman’s lawyer Todd Greenberg said his client was “extremely remorseful about what happened. He’s a very, very decent young man. This is a good lesson to the young people that when emotions get in your way of thinking, this is where your life ends up.” Daisy Machuca in 2015, showing where she was burned several times (with a torch) by her former employer Devanand Lachman.