A 36-year-old local man was arrested near his home in the northern district on Thursday for cheating mainland university students out of HK$2.1 million under the guise of “offering a 10 percent discount for a one-off payment of one year’s rent”, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said during a special press conference on Friday.
The press conference noted that the suspect, surnamed Ieong, who works as a property agent, first contacted his victims via a social media group.
The Judiciary Police received reports from three university students separately on Tuesday and Wednesday that they had been defrauded by Ieong. A male victim said that he had transferred in April this year a total of HK$160,900 to Ieong in rent, a deposit difference and the agency fee to extend the lease on a flat in Taipa he has co-rented with two classmates since June 2022. The male victim realised that Ieong did not pay the rent and the deposit for them after he saw a notice on the flat’s door asking them to pay the rent when returning to Macau last month.
Ho said that Ieong had taken advantage of the opportunity of students returning to the mainland for the summer holiday and defrauded two other female victims out of a total of HK$54,400 in rent and deposit.
Ieong, who was arrested on Thursday, admitted to cheating at least 40 university students from the mainland using the same ruse, totalling about HK$2.1 million in rent and deposit, claiming that he had spent all of the filthy lucre on speculating on stocks. Ieong told the police that due to the failure of his investments, he could only pay about HK$1.5 million in rent on behalf of the students and that he was unable to pay the rent for about 15 flats.
Ieong was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on Friday, facing charges of fraud involving a considerably large amount of money and abuse of trust.
The hooded local fraud suspect is escorted by police officers from the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters in Zape to a PJ vehicle after Friday’s special press conference.
– Photo courtesy of TDM
