A man from the mainland was arrested last Friday for robbery and the attempted blackmail of a female currency exchange dealer out of HK$101,000, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Cheong Kam Fai said at a regular press conference on Wednesday.
The suspect surnamed Hu, who is in his twenties, told the police that he is a trader. The female currency exchange dealer, who is in her twenties, told the police that she is jobless.
According to Cheong, the security department of a casino-hotel resort in Cotai reported to the Judiciary Police last Friday that a mainland man intended to rob HK$101,000 in cash from a woman. The victim told the police that she approached a man at the casino at about 2 a.m. on that day and asked him whether he wanted to exchange yuan into Hong Kong dollars. They agreed to an exchange rate of HK$1 to 0.855 yuan. The man told the victim that he wanted to exchange 1,200 yuan into HK$1,450.
Cheong said after the deal Hu transferred 1,200 yuan into the victim’s bank account. The victim put her smartphone on a nearby slot machine and took out a pile of Hong Kong dollar notes totalling HK$101,000 from her trouser pocket to give Hu HK$1,450. Hu suddenly tried to snatch all the cash from the victim. After failing in his attempted robbery, he grabbed the victim’s smartphone and forced her to hand all the cash to him otherwise he wouldn’t return the phone to her. The victim refused and they started to quarrel which caught the attention of a security guard who reported the case to the police. PJ officers rushed to the scene and arrested Hu.
Hu was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) last Friday, facing robbery and extortion charges, according to Cheong.
