Two men from the mainland were arrested on Friday for stealing a female gambler’s chips worth HK$128,000 in a resort in Cotai earlier that day, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Leng Kam Lon said at a press conference yesterday.
The two jobless suspects are a 39-year-old man surnamed Nie and a 43-year-old man surnamed Bin.
According to Leng, a staff member of the resort’s surveillance department reported to the Judiciary Police last Friday that someone had stolen casino chips worth HK$128,000 earlier that day. PJ officers scrutinised the casino’s CCTV footage and discovered that two men accompanied the woman to gamble in a VIP room. One of the men (Bin) sat next to the woman while the other one (Nie) helped the woman keep a stack of chips worth HK$100,000 and placed bets for her. However, he put his hand on top of the stack of chips and stole one chip each time he placed the bet. He stole chips 18 times, worth HK$128,000 in total. Leng said that the woman won a total of HK$150,000 in chips and Nie gave the chips to another man who was on the run at the time of the press conference. Nie, Bin and the woman then left the VIP room.
Leng said that the duo were intercepted by security guards when they returned to the VIP room later that day. Under questioning by the police, Nie admitted that he stole the chips while Bin refused to cooperate with the police.
PJ officers seized chips worth HK$150,000 from each of them. The Judiciary Police are continuing their investigation into the case and are looking for the third man who was still on the run, as well as the female victim, at the time of the press conference.
The duo were transferred to the Prosecutions Office (MP) on Saturday, facing an aggravated theft charge, according to Leng.
