An owner of a renovation company has been arrested for defrauding four people out of 550,000 patacas by claiming that he could help them get local work permits (colloquially known as a “blue card”) for their friends and family members in his renovation company, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chong Kam Leong said at a special press conference yesterday.
The 44-year-old local suspect is surnamed Kuan.
According to Chong, the four victims, comprising two local men and two men from the mainland, had been introduced to Kuan by someone in May when Kuan told them individually that his company was recruiting workers from the mainland, showing them fake documents to gain their trust.
The victims fell for it and gave the fraudster, who charged each person from 35,000 to 60,000 patacas per application, a total of 550,000 patacas, in the hope of getting for 16 of their friends and family members blue cards and jobs in the company. However, Chong said, after Kuan had received the money, he kept coming up with excuses. The victims lost contact with Kuan completely in July so they decided to seek help separately from the police.
The police identified Kuan and summoned him for questioning on Tuesday. Under questioning, Kuan admitted to scamming the victims and told the police that his renovation company no longer had the right to apply for quotas for non-resident workers. He claimed that all the proceeds from the fraud had already been spent on daily expenses.
Kuan was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing fraud charges, according to Chong.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the fraud suspect to a PJ vehicle outside the PJ headquarters.
– Photo: William Chan
