A usurer (referred as A) loaned a victim (referred as B) money to gamble, and the Court of Second Instance (TSI) ruled that the former is banned from entering any local casino for four years, as well as having been sentenced to three years behind bars on four years’ probation, a Court of Final Appeal (TUI) said in a statement last week.
According to the statement, B messaged A on WeChat on June 11, 2019 asking for money to gamble and met up with A in a hotel room. The statement pointed out that B agreed to pay 25 percent of the winning bets as interest and requested HK$200,000 from A.
The statement pointed out that B – whose gender was not released by the court – was able to win and cleared his or her debt on the same day, yet B asked A for money again on June 13. The statement added that A negotiated the terms with B and agreed to loan money to B for the second time, and a third time on the next day.
The statement noted that the Court of First Instance (TBJ) said that A – whose gender wasn’t released either – violated Macau’s Penal Code Articles 219 (usury) and 29 (continuous offence) so that he or she was sentenced for two years and nine months on three years’ probation and banned from entering Macau casinos for three years.
The statement said that the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) was dissatisfied with the ruling and appealed to the Court of Second Instance, stressing that A should not be charged with just one continuous offence of usury but three separate ones.
The statement noted that the TSI panel of judges considered that A ensured that B signed separate IOUs before lending B any money, as well as taking B’s identity documents as guarantee. Therefore, the statement added, the panel of judges agreed that every single time A lent B the money, it should be construed as one individual violation of the usury charge. Therefore, the TSI panel ruled that A is to be charged with three usury charges, each charge resulting in two years and three months behind bars, but due to the concurrence of the offences, A is to be sentenced to three years behind bars with four years’ probation, as well as being barred from entering any local casinos for four years.
