A local woman was arrested on Saturday for defrauding her ex-employer out of about 820,000 patacas in May by forging cheques, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chan Wun Man said at regular press conference yesterday.
The 53-year-old suspect surnamed Iao is jobless. She worked as an accountant for a frozen food company between January and June 8.
According to Chan, a person in charge of the company reported to the Judiciary Police on Saturday that one of their former staff members had embezzled about 820,000 patacas by forging cheques.
The person-in-charge told the police that the company had hired Iao in January to handle the company’s accounts and finance, and she was entrusted with the running of three of the company’s chequebooks. However, Iao’s work attitude and performance was poor and she was dismissed on June 8. The company’s new accountant who took over Iao’s job discovered that something was awry when checking the accounts on Friday. The company’s person-in-charge checked with the bank and discovered that someone had forged signatures to cash 10 cheques in May, with amounts ranging from between 35,000 patacas and about 120,000 patacas each time, defrauding the company out of a total of approximately 820,000 patacas.
Chan said the company told Iao to go to the office on Saturday and called the police. Iao denied embezzling the company and refused to cooperate with the police. The Judiciary Police are continuing their investigation to trace the whereabouts of the money.
Iao was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on Tuesday, facing charges of fraud and document forgery, according to Chan.
