Six non-locals were cheated out of a total of 78,000 patacas by a male non-resident worker (NRW) from the mainland who claimed that he could help them get an assistant waiter or driving job in Macau, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lei Chi Hou said yesterday.
During a special press conference in the PJ headquarters in Zape, Lei said that the Judiciary Police received a joint complaint about the job referral scams from four of the middle-aged victims – two men from the mainland and two women from Myanmar – on Friday night, saying that each had been defrauded by a 36-year-old man surnamed Xie, whom they had met through a female NRW from the mainland, out of 13,000 patacas as “referral fees” and “document fees” in December last year.
The quartet only took Xie to the PJ headquarters on Friday night after they had met him once again arranged by the female NRW – identified as a witness in this case – when Xie told them that he could not return their money as he had gambled away the 52,000 patacas received from four of the six victims.
A further PJ investigation found that at least two other women were defrauded out of a total of 26,000 patacas by the suspect in the same way, Lei said, adding that the duo were unable to come to Macau to report their case due to visa problems.
According to Macau’s labour regulations, non-locals are barred from working as professional drivers here.
Mainland man caught red-handed defrauding pawnshop out of HK$65,000: police
Meanwhile, another mainland man was caught red-handed attempting to defraud a pawnshop in Zape out of HK$65,000 with a fake “gold chain” on Saturday night, according to Lei.
According to yesterday’s press conference, the suspect, aged 33, is surnamed Xu.
The pawnshop reported the fraud to the police that night, saying that the “gold chain” weighing 4.269 taels (161.3 grams), which the suspect wanted to pawn, was different to a genuine one with its surface being gold in colour, but the inner layer was a silver-coloured metal substance.
Under questioning, Xu insisted that the “gold chain” was given to him by a friend from the mainland to settle a debt, Lei said.
Lei noted that both Xie and Xu were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, where both face their respective charges of fraud involving a large amount of money.
The two mainland men suspected of defrauding their victims in six job referral scams (left) and trying to pawn a counterfeit gold chain respectively are separately escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters in Zape to a police vehicle yesterday. – Photo combo: Yuki Lei
