The Judiciary Police (PJ) have arrested a female non-resident worker from the mainland who embezzled about 175,000 patacas from her employer – a piano shop – in September last year and gambled away all the ill-gotten money, PJ spokesman Leng Kam Lon said during a regular press conference on Monday.
Leng identified the suspect as a 36-year-old surnamed Li, who worked as a saleswoman in the shop. Li, who started to work for the company in early 2019, was also tasked with depositing the company’s revenues into its bank account.
According to Leng, the employer discovered in late September that the 175,000 patacas had not been deposited into the company’s bank account, which should have been done earlier that month. The employer asked Li, who admitted that she had embezzled the money.
Li promised her employer that she would return the stolen money to the company by signing an IOU because of which her employer decided not to report the case to the police, Leng said. However, Li did not fulfil her promise to return the money, and even disappeared, Leng said.
According to Leng, consequently the employer reported the case to the police in early October. Three days later, Li got to know that the company had reported the case to the police so she immediately deposited 20,000 patacas into the company’s bank account by online transfer and promised her employer that she would return the remainder to the company. However, she didn’t keep her promise.
Leng said that Li surrendered to the PJ headquarters late last month. Under questioning, Li admitted to having embezzled the 175,000 patacas from her employer. The suspect told the police that she had gambled away all the money.
Li has been transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) for further questioning.
