A local woman was arrested on Wednesday for cheating two women and a man out of HK$1.29 million in three separate investment scams, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei said at a special press conference yesterday.
The 60-year-old local suspect surnamed Cheang told the police that she is unemployed. Lei said that Cheang previously worked as an insurance broker. The three local victims are Cheang’s friends who have known each other for many years.
According to Lei, a woman reported to the Judiciary Police on Tuesday that Cheang had cheated her out of HK$680,000. The victim told the police that she had known Cheang for more than 20 years. In February 2011, Cheang, who worked as an insurance broker at that time, told her that a purported employee wealth management plan her company was running would offer her monthly interest of HK$3,000 for every HK$100,000 invested. The victim then transferred HK$400,000 to Cheang’s bank account and she received the monthly interest of the invested amount until early 2013. In January 2012, Cheang persuaded the victim to invest with her to buy a parking space. The victim subsequently transferred HK$200,000 to Cheang’s bank account. When the victim could no longer receive the monthly interest of the purported employee wealth plan in early 2013, she asked Cheang about it but the latter came up with different excuses. Cheang later falsely claimed that she had to pay insurance premiums on behalf of other clients and borrowed HK$80,000 from the victim.
In 2018, the victim grew suspicious as Cheang failed to return any money to her. Friends later also told the victim that they had been cheated by Cheang in purported joint investments in parking spaces. The victim finally decided to report the case to the police this week, Lei said.
According to Lei, the Judiciary Police contacted two other victims (a man and a woman) based on the information provided by the first victim. The male victim and the female victim told the police that they had given Cheang HK$300,000 and HK$1.16 million respectively for the purported joint investment in parking spaces. The female victim told the police that Cheang had paid HK$850,000 back to her.
Lei said that the Judiciary Police told Cheang to report to a police station on Wednesday to assist in the investigation. Cheang admitted to defrauding the three victims and claimed that she had meanwhile spent all the ill-gotten money on her daily expenses.
Cheang was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing fraud charges, according to Lei.
The hooded fraud suspect is escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters to a PJ vehicle in Zape yesterday. Photos: Camy Tam
Evidence seized from the fraud suspect such as nine bank passbooks and a smartphone is displayed at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters yesterday.
