Another case involving practice banknotes
Two men were arrested last Thursday for cheating a female gambler out of 85,900 yuan (105,952 patacas) in a currency exchange scam using practice banknotes earlier that day in a hotel guestroom in Cotai, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei said at a regular press conference on Monday.
One of the suspects had surreptitiously called the Judiciary Police during the deal in order to avoid criminal responsibility.
Both jobless suspects are mainlanders, a 22-year-old man surnamed Xin and a 35-year-old surnamed Wang.
According to Lei, the victim wanted to exchange yuan into Hong Kong dollars for shopping in Macau last Thursday. A casino PR staff member at the hotel introduced her to a currency exchange dealer. Xin and Wang met the victim in her guestroom last Thursday afternoon and agreed to exchange 85,900 yuan into HK$100,000. After the victim transferred the yuan into a designated bank account in the mainland provided by the suspects both gave her two wads of banknotes which the victim soon found were practice banknotes with just two genuine Hong Kong dollar notes on the top and bottom of each wad. She immediately confronted the two men about it.
One of the suspects calls the police ‘to avoid criminal responsibility’
After the deal, Xin realised that he would inevitably be caught and therefore decided to surreptitiously call the police in an attempt to evade criminal responsibility. PJ officers arrived at the scene but Wang prevented the victim from opening the door. Wang and Xin rushed into the bathroom to tear up the practice banknotes, and flushed them down the toilet in an attempt to destroy the evidence. The officers later managed to enter the room and arrested the duo, Lei said.
According to Lei, Xin told the police he realised that he would be caught sooner or later, so he decided to report the case to the police. He also said that he had been hired by someone in the mainland to work in Macau, and that he would be paid 10,000 yuan for each completed deal. Xin insisted that he was unaware of the fraudulent use of practice banknotes in the deal.
Wang said that he had illegally entered Macau to gamble recently and eventually gambled away all his money. He denied that he was involved in the fraud and claimed that he was merely the middleman in the deal.
Lei said the Judiciary Police were looking for the whereabouts of the 85,900 yuan and other possible suspects.
Xin and Wang have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing charges of fraud involving a considerable amount, officially defined as ranging between 30,000 patacas and 150,000 patacas, according to Lei.
According to Wikipedia, a practice banknote is generally similar in size, shape and colour to circulating banknotes and are used for training bank tellers and cashiers. Usually they are crudely printed and cannot be used as legal tender.
