A local man was arrested on Wednesday for cheating a female friend out of HK$45,900 insurance premium, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Choi Ian Fai said at a regular press conference on Friday.
The 49-year-old local suspect is surnamed Pang. The victim, in her forties, had been his friend for many years.
According to Choi, a woman from the mainland reported to the Judiciary Police on November 27 last year that she had taken out an insurance policy of HK$160,000 through Pang in 2018. She told the police that she needed cash urgently in October 2019 to buy a property and borrowed HK$135,900 from Pang who falsely claimed that the insurance policy could be used as collateral to borrow money from the insurance company. The victim had signed a “loan agreement” and Pang later gave her HK$135,900.
Choi said the victim later paid back HK$135,900 to Pang for him to repay the loan and renew the policy. The victim visited the insurance company in April last year to check her policy status and discovered that Pang had actually surrendered the policy of which HK$135,900 had been returned from the insurance company and Pang gave the amount to Pang.
After the victim had paid back the HK$135,900 to Pang, he took out a new policy of HK$90,000 for her. The victim had asked Pang about it and he admitted that he embezzled the balance of HK$45,900 from her repayment amount. The “loan agreement” was actually the surrender document. Pang claimed that he would return the money to the victim, according to Choi.
Choi said since the victim had never received the HK$45,900 from Pang she reported the case to the police in November last year. The Judiciary Police identified Pang and arrested him when he re-entered Macau on Wednesday via the Barrier Gate checkpoint. Pang admitted to committing the crime and told the police that he had spent the money on his daily expenses.
Pang has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing a fraud charge, according to Choi.
