A local traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) male practitioner with a criminal record, a 32-year-old female TCM practitioner, and a 54-year-old saleswoman of a TCM pharmacy were arrested separately on Wednesday and Thursday for their alleged involvement in a digital health voucher fraud involving 1,365,000 patacas, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lou Chan Fai said during a special press conference on Friday.
Lou said that the male TCM practitioner, surnamed Lao, has been engaged in traditional Chinese medicine for more than a decade, adding that he has a criminal record for alleged involvement in another digital health voucher fraud, while the two local female suspects are surnamed Mok and Ng.
Lou noted that another nine locals, aged between 49 and 79, allegedly involved in the fraud case have also been picked up, pointing out that eight of the nine suspects are retired or unemployed.
On September 27, the Judiciary Police were notified by the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) that the Health Bureau (SSM) had received complaints from residents between April and May last year according to which a TCM practitioner at a Chinese pharmacy in Areia Preta district was suspected of illegally handling digital health vouchers. Therefore, PJ officers were dispatched to inspect the pharmacy, according to Lou.
According to information provided by the Health Bureau, the male TCM practitioner had been removed from the government’s annual medical subsidy programme in August last year for repeated misuse of digital health vouchers, Lou noted.
Lou said that the PJ officers intercepted nine customers who had used digital health vouchers at the pharmacy, adding that some of them admitted that during the period from April to July last year, when they bought remedies from the pharmacy, the saleswoman claimed that they could buy goods, such as dried seafood and Winter Green Oil, using their digital health vouchers in which case they would benefit from a 30-percent discount. The customers also claimed that the process of deducting the digital health vouchers from their accounts was carried out by the female TCM practitioner, Lou pointed out.
According to Lou, PJ officers arrested Mok and Ng at the pharmacy on Wednesday.
Under questioning, both admitted that between 2020 and last year they had asked customers to “help” the pharmacy by exchanging their digital health vouchers for the goods, Lou added.
Lou said that PJ officers nabbed Lao when he entered Macau early Thursday morning through the Barrier Gate checkpoint, adding that Lao confessed that he had cooperated with Ng and Mok in defrauding the government out of 1,365,000 patacas in digital health vouchers by offering a 30-percent discount to their customers in exchange for the digital health vouchers. Lao added that the ill-gotten cash was lost in ill-fated investments.
Three of the 12 suspects – Lao, Mok and Ng – were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office on Friday, facing fraud and organised crime charges, while the other nine suspects are facing fraud charges, according to Lou.
The three hooded local suspects are escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters in Zape to a vehicle on Friday. – Photo courtesy of TDM
