A man from the mainland was arrested on Monday for fraud, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Cheong Kim Fong said during a regular press conference yesterday.
The 38-year-old suspect surnamed Huang claimed to be jobless.
According to Cheong, on January 23, a middle-aged male gambler from the mainland was approached by Huang after winning HK$300,000 at a casino in Cotai. Huang claimed to know a “gambler” who needed to exchange chips and could offer a favourable exchange rate for converting Hong Kong dollar chips into yuan. They struck the deal outside the side entrance of the casino, where the victim handed over HK$300,000 in chips to Huang. Huang then made an excuse to go to a hotel room to find the “gambler” to complete the exchange and asked the victim to wait by the lift.
Afterwards, Huang left through the fire escape to avoid the victim seeing him. He then went to the casino and gambled away all the chips before leaving Macau that night through the Barrier Gate checkpoint. After waiting for a long time, the gambler began to suspect he had been scammed and finally reported the case to the police.
Cheong noted that Huang was intercepted on Monday while re-entering Macau through the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge checkpoint. The police confiscated HK$2,500 from him. Cheong said that Huang had no prior record for illegal currency exchange.
Huang has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) and is facing a fraud charge.
This undated handout photo provided by the Judiciary Police (PJ) yesterday displays two HK$1,000 and three HK$100 banknotes along with a mobile phone.
