A couple from the mainland, a local man and a local woman were arrested recently for sham marriages so that the couple and their son and daughter would be able to obtain Macau ID cards, Public Security Police (PSP) spokesman Cheong Heon Fan said at a regular press conference yesterday.
The couple originally from the mainland are a 53-year-old woman surnamed Zhang who works for a local bakery, her 59-year-old “ex-husband” from the mainland surnamed Tan who works as a casino dealer. The two local suspects are unemployed – a 64-year-old woman surnamed Lio and a 59-year-old man surnamed Ho.
Zhang and Tan’s 27-year-old daughter and 23-year-old son obtained their Macau ID cards in 2010.
According to Cheong, the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) referred two suspicious marriage cases to the Public Security Police recently for follow-up investigation. PSP officers nabbed the four suspects last Wednesday at their respective homes and workplaces in the northern district and took them to a police station for questioning. The quartet admitted to committing the crime.
Cheong said Zhang and Tan married in 1992 in the mainland and their daughter and son were born in 1994 and 1998 respectively. They divorced in 2006 and Zhang married a local man (Ho) while Tan married a local woman (Lio) in the same year. Under questioning, Zhang told the police that she had paid an intermediary in the mainland 30,000 yuan to “marry” Ho whom she paid an additional 70,000 yuan for the sham marriage deal, while Tan paid Lio 30,000 yuan for the fake marriage. After the mainland couple and the two children obtained their Macau IDs in 2010, Zhang and Ho divorced in 2011. Tan and Lio divorced in 2013.
The quartet have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) last Thursday, facing charges of document forgery and providing false information about their personal data, according to Cheong.
Public Security Police (PSP) spokesman Cheong Heon Fan looks on during yesterday’s press conference at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters. Photo: Camy Tam
