A local man was arrested on Friday for defrauding his ex-boss of a watch worth HK$1.328 million and gambled away the filthy lucre, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said at a regular press conference yesterday.
The suspect was arrested last November for fraud amounting to HK$900,000. He was released on bail and required to report regularly to the police as well as prohibited from leaving Macau, Ho said.
The 35-year-old local jobless suspect is surnamed Wu.
According to Ho, a mainlander reported to the police on January 12 that he had been defrauded last year by a local man who failed to take a watch in for repair. The victim told the police that he had hired Wu as his chauffeur on a monthly salary of 10,000 patacas in 2018 and he also helped the victim by buying daily necessities for him and sending them to the mainland. The victim asked Wu to take the watch to a specialty store to repair the crystal [glass face] in March last year.
Ho said the victim’s friend at that time was interested in buying the same kind of watch, and his friend transferred over HK$900,000 to Wu so that he could buy it for him. Wu did not buy the watch for the victim’s friend but gambled away all the money. Wu then left Macau.
According to Ho, last September the victim was eventually able to contact Wu who admitted that he had pawned the watch instead of getting it repaired and gambled away all the money. However, the victim did not inform the police about the case until he learnt last November that Wu had gambled away the more than HK$900,000 that the victim’s friend had given him to buy a watch.
Ho said Wu was arrested last November 23 for embezzling over HK$900,000 and was barred from leaving Macau. He was granted bail and required to report regularly to the police.
According to Ho, the Judiciary Police told Wu to report to a police station on Friday for further investigation. He admitted to pawning the victim’s watch and redeemed it after winning tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars. However, he also wanted to win back the HK$900,000 he had received from the victim’s friend which he previously gambled away. He pawned the watch again for HK$520,000 but eventually gambled away all the money. .
Wu has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) for follow up investigation, facing charges of abuse of trust, according to Ho.
Suspected homicide still under investigation
Meanwhile, a PJ spokesperson told The Macau Post Daily yesterday that the suspected homicide reported on Friday of a woman from the mainland whose body was found in a guestroom of a hotel in Cotai that the case was still under investigation. The spokesperson said that the media will be informed in due course about the outcome of the investigation.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam poses during yesterday’s regular press conference. Photo: Camy Tam
