A local man was arrested on Sunday for giving the licensee of a VIP room of a casino in Cotai two “rubber cheques” totalling HK$10.9 million in May, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chong Kam Leong said at a press conference yesterday.
The 72-year-old suspect surnamed Chao told the police that he is a businessman. The male victim is 48 years old.
According to Chong, the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) referred a case to the Judiciary Police in late October in which a local man had been cheated by Chao out of HK$10.9 million. Chong said that Chao signed a HK$10 million credit deal with the VIP room last January to gamble there. He later gambled away all the money but did not repay it for some time. He later told the victim that his business was facing problems and asked the victim to lend him HK$900,000 for financing. On March 5 this year, Chao gave the victim two post-dated cheques totalling HK$10.9 million. When the victim went to the bank to cash the cheques on May 5, they bounced because of insufficient funds in the account. The victim suspected that Chao defrauded him so he reported the case to MP through his lawyer.
Chong said Chao was arrested when he was about to leave Macau via the Barrier Gate checkpoint on Sunday. Under questioning, Chao admitted that he gave the victim two bad cheques as he was unable to repay the money due to poor business.
Chao was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on Monday, facing a fraud charge – issuance of two cheques with insufficient funds, according to Chong.
