Camy Tam
A mainland man was arrested on Monday for pimping and stealing 4,000 patacas in cash from an elderly sex client earlier that day, Public Security Police (PSP) spokesman Cheong Heon Fan said at a press briefing yesterday.
The 39-year-old suspect surnamed Xie holds an Exit-Entry Permit for Travelling to and from Hong Kong and Macau (colloquially known as a Two-way Permit). A sex worker, a mainlander in her forties surnamed Wu, was on the run at the time of the press conference.
According to Cheong, a local man in his sixties reported to the police on Monday that 4,000 patacas that he had in his wallet had been stolen from him in a hotel guestroom by a woman. He told the police that he met the woman in the city centre that night. She offered him sex for 200 patacas. The victim paid 200 patacas to the woman and went with her to a hotel guestroom nearby.
He then took a shower at the woman’s request. During the shower, the victim suddenly heard what appeared to be someone closing the guest room door, so he rushed out of the bathroom to check and found the woman had disappeared. After checking his valuables, he found that 4,000 patacas he had in his wallet had vanished. He reported a total loss of 4,200 patacas, to the police, including the 200 patacas he had paid for the commercial sex service.
Cheong said PSP officers checked the hotel guestroom registration record and identified Xie who was arrested when he was about to leave Macau via the Barrier Gate checkpoint later that night. The officers discovered 4,000 patacas in Xie’s wallet. He claimed that he had used yuan to buy the 4,000 patacas.
Xie claimed that he had only met the woman in the morning of that day and that they gambled together. He claimed that he had just helped her book a guestroom in his name. The officers scrutinised CCTV footage from the hotel’s neighbourhood and discovered that Xie and Wu left the hotel together that night after the theft and got in a taxi together. The officers checked Xie’s messages on his smartphone and discovered his photo album had the woman surnamed Wu’s photo as well as her mainland ID card photo in it.
The Public Security Police believe that Xie is a pimp who hired Wu to work as a prostitute in Macau and told her to steal the victim’s money. The Public Security Police later confirmed that Wu had returned to the mainland via the Barrier Gate checkpoint that night.
Xie has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing pimping and theft charges, according to Cheong who added that at the time of the press conference the police were still looking for Wu.
This undated handout photo provided by the Public Security Police (PSP) yesterday shows the pimping and theft suspect being escorted by PSP officers to a police station in Nam Van.
This undated handout photo provided by the Public Security Police (PSP) yesterday shows evidence seized from the suspect such as 4,000 patacas in cash, a smartphone and clothes which the suspect wore when the theft was committed by his female accomplice.
