A former staff member of a dried seafood shop was arrested on Sunday for stealing HK$800,000 in cash from the shop’s safe in February this year, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chan Wun Man said at a press briefing yesterday.
The 29-year-old suspect surnamed Zhao is a former non-resident worker from the mainland. He worked for the shop in Taipa for three years and told the police that he now works as a parallel trader.
According to Chan, the person-in-charge of the shop reported to the Judiciary Police on February 10 this year that HK$800,000 kept in the shop’s safe had vanished. The person-in-charge told the police that all the employees were told the safe’s combination to make it more convenient for their work. PJ officers scrutinised the shop’s CCTV footage and discovered that Zhao opened the safe while no one was in the shop and stole the money before he left work earlier that day.
Chan said that the officers identified Zhao as the suspect and discovered that he had left Macau after stealing the money. He was arrested when he re-entered Macau early on Sunday. Under questioning, Zhao admitted that he stole the money and went straight to a casino in Zape to gamble. He told the police that he had gambled away all the stolen money and afterwards left Macau via the Barrier Gate checkpoint.
Zhao was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing an aggravated theft charge, according to Chan.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chan Wun Man looks on during yesterday’s press conference at the PJ headquarters. Photo: Camy Tam
