Two cousins from the mainland were hired by a mainland crime gang to hock fake watches and gold necklaces in local pawn shops, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei said during a special press conference yesterday.
The male suspects surnamed Li are a 25-year-old salesman and a 26-year-old construction worker.
According to Lei, a pawn shop owner reported to the police last October that they discovered a fake watch that had been pawned in February 2022. The police later identified the person who pawned the fake item to be the younger Li, and they suspected that he had hocked fake items in several shops before.
Li was arrested on Sunday when he entered Macau through the Barrier Gate checkpoint. Under questioning, he admitted to pawning six valuables , including fake watches and gold necklaces, at different pawn shops in Nape, while his older cousin hocked items four times at various pawnbrokers.
Lei said that the fake items were worth only about half to one-third of the genuine items, and the duo had defrauded pawn shops out of a total of HK$155,000.
Li told the police that a mainland gang had given him the fake valuables and instructed him to pawn them in Macau since February 2022. Li and his cousin were promised a “commission” of 3,000 yuan (3,500 patacas) for each successful transaction, according to Lei, adding that after hocking the items, the duo would hand over the pawn shop’s receipts to the gang, who would then sell the receipts to other people.
Li’s cousin was arrested on Sunday afternoon but refused to cooperate with the police.
The duo have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing fraud charges, Lei said.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the hooded fraud suspects to a PJ vehicle outside the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. – Photos: William Chan
Evidence including a fake gold necklace and two bogus watches seized from the suspects is displayed during yesterday’s special press conference at the PJ headquarters in Zape.
