A local university student was arrested this week for falsely reporting a case to the police, Public Security Police (PSP) spokesman Choi Iok Kin said at a press conference yesterday.
The suspect surnamed Cheong is in his twenties.
According to Choi, Cheong went to a PSP police station on Sunday to report to the police that he had lost 7,000 patacas in cash. He told the police that he withdrew the money from an ATM in Rua do Mercado de Iao Hon (市場街) earlier that day. According to his version of events, he then rode his motorbike and when he arrived near the Government Services Centre in the northern district, he discovered that the cash had vanished. He claimed that he tried to retrace his steps by riding his motorbike the whole way back, but was unable to find the cash so he reported the case to the police.
Choi said that PSP officers found Cheong’s statement suspicious after scrutinising CCTV footage of the areas as the officers were unable to see Cheong on the footage. The Public Security Police told Cheong to report to a police station on Tuesday. Under questioning, Cheong’s various statements about the case appeared to be inconsistent.
After further questioning, Cheong finally admitted that he falsely reported the case to the police because he had promised to give his girlfriend a luxury brand smartphone as a birthday present. However, he could not afford the phone’s 7,000 patacas price tag, and he didn’t want to disappoint his girlfriend, so he came up with the plot to pretend that he lost the cash and reported the “case” to the police to raise his plot’s credibility.
Cheong has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing a charge of filing a false police report (Article 330 of Macau Penal Code), according to Choi.
This undated handout photo provided by the Public Security Police (PSP) yesterday shows a PSP officer escorting the suspect to a police station in Zape.
