During a regular press conference yesterday, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lei Chi Hou announced the arrest of the female owner of a local beauty parlour for defrauding five local residents. The scam involved her claim of providing a 1:1 exchange rate between patacas and yuan.
The 34-year-old suspect is a local woman surnamed Lai. The victims comprise four women and a man, all middle-aged.
According to Lei, all five victims were customers of Lai’s beauty salon, and last September they received text messages from Lai claiming to offer a 1:1 pataca-yuan exchange rate. The victims subsequently transferred sums of money ranging from 30,000 to 130,000 patacas. Some of them received some yuan in exchange, but Lai kept delaying the delivery of the outstanding amounts, and the victims eventually lost contact with her.
All five victims reported their cases separately last November. Lei noted that the total loss incurred by the victims amounted to 170,000 patacas. The police apprehended Lai in the central district on Thursday.
Under questioning, Lai admitted that she had defrauded the victims, claiming that she had spent all the ill-gotten money on gambling and daily expenses.
Lai has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing scam charges, according to Lei.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lei Chi Hou looks on during yesterday’s regular press conference at the PJ headquarters in Zape. – Photo: William Chan
