A local woman was arrested on Monday for cheating a mainland woman out of over 210,000 patacas for the purported purchase of a luxury watch earlier this year, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chong Kam Leong said at a press briefing on Wednesday.
The 36-year-old suspect surnamed Mou told the police that she is unemployed. Chong said that Mou has a criminal record for alleged fraud and theft. She’s required to report to the police on a regular basis as she is awaiting trial.
According to Chong, a woman from the mainland reported to the Judiciary Police on November 18 that she had been defrauded by a local woman surnamed Mou out of more than 210,000 patacas. The victim told the police that she wanted to buy a brand name watch and got to know Mou in the mainland in May. Mou told her that she was a purchasing agent and could get the watch for her at a 25 percent discount. However, Mou told her to pay the full amount of the discounted price in advance.
Chong said that the victim made two transfers to Mou’s bank account, on May 21 and July 28 this year, totalling 267,000 patacas. However, the victim never received the watch so she asked Mou to give her money back. Mou only gave her HK$49,000. The victim suspected that she had been cheated and reported the case to the police.
The Judiciary Police identified Mou as the suspect and discovered that she was also involved in a theft and a fraud case, and was required to report to the police regularly. PJ officers arrested her when she reported to the police on Monday. Under questioning, Mou admitted that she defrauded the victim and that she had been unable to buy the watch at the discounted price. She told the police that she had spent the ill-gotten money on her daily expenses.
Mou was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on Tuesday, facing a fraud charge, according to Chong.
