Suspect ties victim up with bathrobe belts
A mainland man was arrested on Tuesday for robbing a female currency dealer of HK$300,000 on Monday night in a hotel guestroom in Cotai, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Leng Kam Lun said at a special press conference yesterday.
The 24-year-old suspect surnamed Cui from Shanxi province told the police that he is a chef. The currency dealer is a mainlander in her twenties.
According to Leng, the Judiciary Police received a notice from the Public Security Police (PSP) on Tuesday morning that a mainland woman had been robbed of HK$300,000 in cash by a man in a casino hotel guestroom in Cotai. PJ officers went to the scene to investigate.
Leng said the victim told the police that she came to Macau this month to work as a currency dealer. She met a man at a casino in Cotai on Friday evening. The duo exchanged contact information to stay in touch. The duo met twice when the man exchanged 10,000 yuan into HK$11,600 on Friday and 8,000 yuan into HK$9,200 on Sunday. He settled the payments via online bank transfers.
According to Leng, the man asked the victim to exchange currency again on Monday night. They met in a hotel guestroom in Cotai and the man agreed to exchange 60,000 yuan for HK$70,000. However, the suspect told the victim that his smartphone was unable to receive data as an excuse to claim that the transfer had been unsuccessful while the victim was waiting in the guestroom.
Leng said that about 20 minutes later, the suspect suddenly wrapped his arms around the victim and then pushed her onto the floor. He threatened her by telling her not to move as there was a knife in the room. Afterwards, he tied the victim’s wrists and ankles with bathrobe belts, stuffed a towel in her mouth and then robbed HK$300,000 which the victim had put in her black backpack, and immediately left the room.
According to Leng, the victim later managed to untie herself and reported the case to the police. PJ officers scrutinised nearby shops’ CCTV footage and identified the suspect. The officers discovered that the suspect took a taxi to Zape and went to a pawnshop to arrange the transfer of HK$287,000 into a bank account in the mainland. He left the Hong Kong dollars cash with the pawnshop for them to transfer the money, after which he left.
The Judiciary Police went to the pawnshop and retrieved the cash. The Public Security Police (PSP) arrested Cui when he was about to leave Macau via the Hengqin checkpoint early on Tuesday and transferred him to the Judiciary Police for follow-up investigation. Under questioning, Cui admitted that he had robbed the victim’s money because he gambled away all his money.
Cui was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday morning, facing robbery charges, according to Leng.
The hooded robbery suspect is escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters to a PJ vehicle yesterday. Photos: Iong Tat Choi
Evidence seized from the robbery suspect such as Hong Kong dollar notes and two bathrobe belts is displayed at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters yesterday.
