Two mainlanders – a 40-year-old man and a 50-year-old woman – were arrested at a hotel in Taipa on Saturday for false imprisonment, extortion, threatening someone with a prohibited weapon, causing bodily harm and loansharking, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam and Public Security Police (PSP) spokesman Sam Chi Nap announced at a special joint press conference yesterday at the PJ headquarters in Zape.
Ho said that the male and female suspects, both overstayers in Macau, are surnamed Yang and Chan respectively, adding that the former told the police that he is unemployed, while the latter works as a clerk.
According to Ho and Sam, the victim, a mainland man in his thirties, had borrowed 468,000 yuan (518,590 patacas) from the duo on July 31 to gamble, during which the victim had been required to pay HK$5,000 in “interest” every day until he could pay off his loan. The victim failed to repay the loan and pay the daily “interest” and was unable to contact the two suspects from August 14 until last Wednesday when he met Chan by chance at a hotel in Taipa. Since then, the victim had been falsely imprisoned by the duo at a guestroom in the hotel.
The victim told the police that he had paid the pair a total of HK$70,000 in interest between July 31 and August 14.
During the period of the false imprisonment, the press conference noted, the victim was punched and kicked by Yang, who also threatened him with a knife in an attempt to blackmail him into paying 150,000 to 200,000 yuan. Yang also forced the victim to hand over his phone and an ATM card and passwords, before transferring 284,000 yuan from the victim’s bank account.
Ho said that the victim was held against his will in the hotel guestroom for 71 ½ hours in total, during which he was forced to stand all the time and prevented from eating anything, while he was being videotaped by the two suspects.
According to Sam, the victim finally managed to escape from the guestroom and asked a security guard in the hotel to call the police last Wednesday when the duo had left the room to order food.
Sam said that PSP officers arrested the two suspects at the hotel on the same day and later referred the duo to the Judiciary Police for loan sharking.
Under questioning, according to Ho, the pair denied having committed the crimes of loansharking, illegal imprisonment and extortion, claiming that they had lent the money to the victim as a “business loan”.
The duo were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing a range of charges.
The two hooded loansharking suspects from the mainland are escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers to a PJ vehicle outside the PJ headquarters in Zape after yesterday’s special press conference about the case. – Photo: Yuki Lei
