A 47-year-old jobless local man was arrested on Wednesday for cheating a relative out of HK$700,000, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesperson said during a regular press conference on Friday.
The spokesperson said that the suspect surnamed Chou is the victim’s cousin-in-law.
According to the spokesperson, in February 2019, the victim took HK$290,000 in cash with him when he entered the mainland through the Gongbei border checkpoint. However, the spokesperson said that the victim’s money was seized by customs officers as he did not submit a declaration for a large amount of cash, adding that the victim then asked Chou, who had previously worked at Gongbei customs, to help him get his money back.
The spokesperson said that Chou told the victim that he knew a Gongbei senior customs officer who could help him get back the withheld money but he needed to pay a deposit of HK$700,000, and Chou claimed that the money would be returned with the HK$290,000 that had been seized.
According to the spokesperson, the victim gave Chou HK$230,000 in cash and then transferred 450,000 yuan (538,515 patacas) to him via online banking.
The spokesperson said that the victim received a call from Gongbei customs in December 2019, saying that since it was the first time that he had committed such an offence, HK$20,900 of the amount would be seized for taxation purposes, wheras the remaining amount would be returned to him.
After receiving the call from the customs, the spokesperson said that the victim realised that he had been cheated by Chou, so he asked Chou to return the deposit. However, he only received 300,000 yuan (HK$348,570) from Chou, so he reported the case to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) last month, after which the case was transferred to the Judiciary Police for follow-up investigation, the spokesperson added,
The investigation confirmed Chou as the suspect, according to the spokesperson.
PJ officers arrested Chou last Wednesday when he entered Macau through the Barrier Gate checkpoint.
Under questioning, Chou admitted that he had cheated the victim out of about HK$352,000, while the rest of the money had been spent on buying property in the mainland and on daily expenses, the spokesperson said.
According to the spokesperson, Chou was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office where he faces a charge of fraud involving a considerably large amount of money.
