A local man working for a clothing shop in a casino hotel in Zape was arrested on Wednesday for embezzling his company out of HK$540,000 which he later gambled away, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chan Wun Man said at a special press conference yesterday.
The 30-year-old suspect is surnamed Tong. He worked in the shop for two years.
According to Chan, an employee of the shop told the Judiciary Police on Wednesday afternoon that about HK$540,000 had vanished from the shop’s safe.
PJ officers went to the shop to investigate.
After scrutinising the shop’s CCTV footage, the Judiciary Police confirmed that, on a rotating basis, each day one of the employees was tasked with closing the shop’s accounts and counting the day’s takings.
PJ officers found Tong to be the most suspicious and intercepted him at his home in Areia Preta district on Wednesday. The officers seized about HK$1,600 from Tong, Chan said.
Under questioning, Tong admitted to stealing the HK$540,000.
He told the police that was facing financial difficulties as he’s addicted to gambling and has gambling debts. Tong said when counting the shop’s takings on Tuesday night, he put about HK$1,600 in two plastic ziplog bags and stole about HK$200,000 from the shop’s safe, and later gambled it all away in a casino in Zape, according to Chan.
In order to win back the money, he used the shop’s key to enter the shop in the wee hours of Wednesday and stole more than HK$300,000 from the safe and went to another casino, where he gambled away half of the stolen money, Chan said, adding that Tong went to work as usual in the morning on that day and put the remaining HK$150,000 back into the safe, Chan said.
According to Chan, another sales assistant of the shop who was responsible for checking how much money was in the safe on that day discovered that there was something amiss.
As there was a customer entering the shop to buy clothing, the sales assistant asked Tong to count the money again. Afterwards, Tong told his colleague that he was unwell and wanted to go home. He surreptitiously took the HK$150,000 with him and left.
Chan said after Tong had left the shop, he took the stolen money to a casino nearby where he gambled it all away again.
Tong was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday morning, facing aggravated theft charges, according to Chan.
The hooded theft suspect is escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters to a PJ vehicle yesterday.
Evidence seized from the theft suspect such as two ziplog bags and HK$ notes is displayed at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters yesterday. Photos: Iong Tat Choi
