A local man owing gambling debts was arrested on Monday for cheating two shops out of HK$69,680 by selling them 1,742 fake cash coupons purportedly issued by a local casino hotel, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chan Wun Man said at a special press conference yesterday.
The 31-year-old local suspect surnamed Lam had worked as a sales assistant in a jewellery shop in Zape for about two years until his arrest.
According to Chan, staff members of the jewellery shop and a souvenir shop owned by the same company in Zape reported to the Judiciary Police on April 26, 2019 that they had been defrauded by two men who sold them fake cash coupons from a casino hotel in the early morning of that day, involving a total 1,742 coupons of which 700 were sold to the jewellery shop and 1,042 were sold to the souvenir shop, incurring a loss of HK$28,000 and HK$41,680 respectively.
Chan said the shops’ employees told PJ officers at that time that their company had been buying cash coupons from the hotel at below the nominal price and resold them to earn the price difference. They said that the two men offered to sell cash coupons worth 100 patacas each at half the nominal price. The two shops agreed to buy the coupons at HK$40 each from the two men, and they only found out that the coupons were forgeries when they took them to the hotel for verification later that day. Chan said some of the fake coupons’ patterns, colours and fonts were different from the genuine ones.
According to Chan, PJ officers investigating the case discovered that Lam committed the crime with four male accomplices from the mainland.
Chan said Lam met the quartet at midnight on April 26, 2019 and they went to Lam’s home in Fai Chi Kei to discuss the plot, and then all of them took a bus to the jewellery shop and then to the souvenir shop. Two of Lam’s accomplices entered each shop to sell the fake coupons while Lam watched them from a distance.
After the quintet had sold the bogus coupons, the four mainlanders returned to the mainland with Lam who returned to Macau later that day and then went to work at the jewellery shop as usual, Chan said.
According to Chan, PJ officers arrested Lam at his home on Monday morning. Under questioning, Lam admitted to committing the crime, but he told the officers that he was not the kingpin of the gang and had been paid just 6,500 patacas. He claimed that he had used the money to pay off his gambling debts.
However, messages found on Lam’s smartphone that he had exchanged with one of his accomplices showed that he had gambling debts so he plotted to defraud the two shops with the counterfeit coupons, Chan said.
PJ officers confirmed that Lam had arranged for the mainlanders to come to Macau and he had provided the accomplices with a sample of the genuine coupons for them to get fake ones printed in the mainland, and he checked the quality of the coupons after printing. Chan said the Judiciary Police believe that Lam was the scheme’s mastermind.
Lam was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing charges of fraud and document forgery, according to Chan, who said that it took the police a long time to investigate the case.
The hooded fraud suspect is escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters to a PJ vehicle yesterday. Photos: Iong Tat Choi
Two copies of the coupons – of a genuine (left) and a fake one – are displayed at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters yesterday.
