Two women and a man were arrested separately at a local border checkpoint on June 2 and on Tuesday for their alleged involvement in a sham marriage, Public Security Police (PSP) spokeswoman Erica Cheong Im Sim said during a regular press conference on Friday, noting that the local female suspect insisted that the fake marriage did not involve any financial benefits.
The bogus marriage involves a sister and her younger sister’s boyfriend who is from the mainland.
Cheong said that the female mainland suspect, aged 30, is surnamed Huang, while the male mainland suspect, aged 29, is surnamed Chen, adding that the local female suspect, who is aged 43 and works as a sales assistant, is Huang’s step-sister.
Cheong did not reveal the local suspect’s surname.
The Public Security Police earlier received a referral from the Identification Services Bureau (DSI) to investigate a suspected case of fake marriage, after which the police identified the trio as the suspects, who all admitted to committing the offence during questioning, Cheong noted.
Under questioning, the local suspect confessed that as she worried that her young sister would have an unstable life after marrying Chen, she suggested she assist Chen in obtaining Macau residency status through a marriage of convenience. The local suspect married Chen in the mainland in early 2020 and applied for him to obtain Macau residency status on family reunion grounds, according to Cheong.
Cheong noted that Chen has not yet obtained a Macau identity card.
The three suspects have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing charges of involvement in a sham marriage.
This undated handout photo provided by the Public Security Police (PSP) on Friday shows PSP officers escorting the two female suspects involved in the sham marriage case to a police station.
