A 49-year-old local man was arrested last Tuesday for cheating his then-girlfriend out of 120,000 patacas and a luxury-brand watch worth 150,000 patacas, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said at a regular press conference on Friday.
According to Ho, the suspect surnamed Lam is a decorator.
Ho said that the victim in her forties met Lam because of her job in May. They later became lovers and lived together in a flat in Areia Preta district.
Ho noted that Lam used a cheque as collateral to borrow 120,000 patacas from his girlfriend on July 28, adding that the suspect also borrowed a luxury brand watch worth 150,000 patacas from his girlfriend on August 3.
Although the victim had repeatedly requested that Lam not resell or pawn her watch, Lam pawned the victim’s watch for HK$110,000 in a pawn shop once he had received it and gambled the money away, according to Ho.
Ho pointed out that after the victim knew that Lam had pawned her watch and was unable to repay the money, so she ended the relationship and reported the case to the Judiciary Police on August 4. Ho added that the victim went to the PJ headquarters again and reported to the police that she had been unable to cash the cheque at a local bank branch on August 5.
PJ officers intercepted Lam at the Barrier Gate checkpoint when he was about to leave Macau last Tuesday, Ho said.
Under questioning, Lam claimed that he had found the cheque in the street and picked it up, adding that he pretended the cheque was issued by him by altering the cheque’s account number and payee name, which he then used as collateral to borrow the money from his girlfriend, according to Ho.
Ho said that the police retrieved the victim’s watch from a pawn shop in the city centre, which reported a loss of HK$110,000.
Lam has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), where he faces charges of fraud involving a considerably large amount of money, abuse of trust and document forgery.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam addresses Friday’s regular press conference at the Public Security Police (PSP) headquarters in Zape.
– Photo courtesy of TDM
