An Indonesian maid who poisoned her employer's milk with insecticide after being scolded for using the telephone was jailed for 15 months in Malaysia.

A court heard that the 31-year-old employer K. Saravanan Kumar noticed a strange taste in the milk after it was spiked by the maid, named only as Maria, with poison taken from his kitchen.

She told police she was unhappy with her employer - who survived the attack - after he admonished her for calling her family in Indonesia without permission, the official Bernama news agency reported.

"This is a serious offence because you cannot go around poisoning people. If it's fated that you should come here again to work, don't do such things. I hope that the jail term will open your eyes," said Judge Zainal Salleh.

Maria was originally charged with attempted murder, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years' jail, but the charge was downgraded to the lesser count of voluntarily causing hurt.