A woman from the mainland was arrested on Thursday for using 84 bogus yuan notes to cheat an illegal currency exchange dealer, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Leng Kam Lon said at a special press conference on Friday.
The 49-year-old suspect surnamed Zhang told the police that she works as a sub-contractor for an engineering company.
According to Leng, a staff member of a casino hotel in Cotai reported to the Judiciary Police on January 18 last year that a male mainlander had used ten 100-yuan notes to exchange Hong Kong dollars six of which were counterfeits. PJ officers arrived at the casino and seized 78 bogus 100-yuan notes from the man.
Leng said the man who, was involved in illegal currency exchange deals, told the police that he had paid Zhang HK$11,400 for 10,000 yuan. The PJ officers discovered that among the 100 yuan notes that the man had received from Zhang, 84 were fakes.
Leng said that the 67 yuan notes all have the same serial No. M7A6457823, while 17 have the serial No. M7A6457860. Leng described the counterfeit yuan notes as being of high quality complete with metal security threads.
Leng said the same casino had reported to the Judiciary Police another case of counterfeit yuan notes on January 16, 2020. The resort’s hotel staff discovered a number of ripped up yuan notes in a rubbish bin in one of the cubicles of the hotel’s female toilet. The ripped notes could be reassembled into 66 notes, and the serial numbers were the same as those of the fraud case on January 18. The Judiciary Police believe that Zhang is involved in both cases.
PJ officers identified Zhang as the suspect and confirmed that she returned to the mainland on January 18 last year.
According to Leng, the Judiciary Police discovered that Zhang had re-entered Macau on May 30 and arrested her at a hotel in the city centre. Zhang refused to cooperate with the police. However, the Judiciary Police have gathered enough evidence to confirm Zhang as the suspect in both cases, according to Leng.
Zhang was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on Friday, facing charges of fraud and putting counterfeit notes into circulation, according to Leng who added that the Judiciary Police are still trying to identify the source of the counterfeit banknotes and other possible suspects.
The hooded fraud suspect is escorted by a Judiciary Police (PJ) officer from the PJ headquarters to a PJ vehicle on Friday.
Evidence seized from the fraud suspect such as bogus yuan notes and a smartphone is displayed at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters on Friday. Photos: Iong Tat Choi
