A mainlander was arrested on Monday for cheating a mainland business woman out of HK$4.89 million, Judiciary Police (PS) spokesman Cheong Kam Fai said during a regular press conference on Wednesday.
The 25-year-old suspect surnamed Lai told the police that he works as a salesman.
According to Cheong, on Sunday, a 33-year-old mainland woman had asked her friend to tell the police that she had been cheated out of more than HK$4 million. The victim has an account with a casino VIP room and wanted to exchange HK$4.89 million into yuan in mid-June. Since she could not come to Macau due to the COVID-19 epidemic, she had asked an intermediary who helped her find someone to transfer 4.5 million yuan to a VIP account of another casino. She authorised the withdrawal of HK$4.89 million from her account but never received the yuan amount.
Since the victim is in the mainland, she decided to report the case to the police through her friend in Macau.
Thanks to CCTV footage and information provided by the VIP room, the police were able to track down Lai who withdrew the money from the victim’s VIP account, and asked him to report to a police station on Monday. Lai showed up at the police station but refused to cooperate. The PJ investigations into the case and the whereabouts of the stolen money are continuing, according to Cheong.
Lai was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on Tuesday, facing an aggravated fraud charge involving a considerable amount, officially defined as exceeding 150,000 patacas, according to Cheong.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Cheung Kam Fai (left) and Public Security Police (PSP) spokesman Cheong Heon Fan pose at a regular press conference on Wednesday. Photo: Camy Tam
