A local man cheated two men and a woman out of HK$420,000 in two currency exchange deals, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Choi Ian Fai said at a special press conference yesterday.
The 32-year-old local suspect surnamed Kuok told the police that he works as a banquet supervisor.
According to Choi, Kuok was charged with aggravated fraud in a liquor sale scam in October last year, after which he was required to report to the police on a regular basis.
Choi said that two men and a woman separately reported to the Judiciary Police between February 10 and 15 that Kuok had defrauded them in money exchange deals. The victims told the police that Kuok had agreed to sell them yuan at a rate of HK$1,000 for 855 yuan.
The first male victim gave HK$223,000 in cash on January 27 and 28 to Kuok who later sent a screenshot of what appeared to be two bank transfer slips to his smartphone.
The second male victim and the female victim, who are friends, gave a total of HK$197,000 in cash to Kuok on February 7 and 8, who also sent them screenshots of what seemed to be two bank transfer slips.
However, the victims never received the yuan from Kuok who had promised to deposit the money into their accounts. Kuok then told the trio that his account had been frozen by the bank. Soon afterwards, the victims lost contact with Kuok. They finally suspected that they had been defrauded by Kuok and separately reported their respective cases to the police.
According to Choi, the Judiciary Police confirmed that Kuok had absconded to the mainland on February 8. He was arrested when he re-entered Macau via the Barrier Gate checkpoint on Monday afternoon.
Under questioning, Kuok admitted that he still had debts from the liquor fraud case. He also admitted that he has a gambling habit. He told the police that he had bought forged transfer bank slip screenshots online for 80 yuan (98.80 patacas) each to defraud the victims. He claimed that he had gambled away all the ill-gotten money.
Kuok was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing charges of computer forgery and fraud involving a considerable amount, officially defined as exceeding 150,000 patacas, according to Choi.
The hooded fraud suspect is escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters in Zape to a vehicle yesterday. Photo: Iong Tat Choi
