Four people have been arrested for their alleged involvement in two sham marriages, in which a local man in his fifties arranged a bogus marriage between his local mother in her seventies and his 32-year-old debtor from the mainland in order to cancel his debt, while the son himself married his debtor’s girlfriend, also from the mainland, who is in her thirties, Public Security Police (PSP) spokesman Lam Keong said during a press conference yesterday.
The son is surnamed Cheang, who told the police he’s jobless. His debtor surnamed Gao is an engineer in the mainland, while his girlfriend surnamed Zhu is the owner of a shop in the mainland. Gao and Zhu obtained permits as family visitors in June and April respectively.
According to Lam, Zhu and Gao were arrested by the Judiciary Police (PJ) on Thursday after they got into an argument and a fight over gambling in a local casino. The duo were later transferred to the PSP as PJ officers found Zhu and Gao’s marital status suspicious, as neither of them lived in Macau.
On Thursday, Cheang and his mother, surnamed Mui, were taken in for questioning from their flat on Rua do Regedor. During the investigation, Cheang revealed that he had met a middleman at a casino in January, who then introduced him to Gao. Cheang borrowed several thousand patacas from Gao, and in order to repay the debt, he arranged a sham marriage between Gao and his mother. Furthermore, Cheang also entered into a sham marriage with Zhu.
The mother and son received a total of HK$33,000 from the mainland duo. Lam added that the duo also promised to pay Cheang and Mei HK$180,000 after they had successfully obtained Macau ID cards in the future.
The quartet have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing charges of involvement in sham marriages, according to Lam.
This chart provided by the Public Security Police yesterday shows the details of the sham marriage case involving four suspects and two bogus marriages.
