The Judiciary Police (PJ) announced yesterday the arrest of a Hong Kong woman and a mainland man for, respectively, transferring nearly 100,000 yuan from an elderly woman’s mobile bank account without her authorisation and taking casino chips worth HK$2 million from a male gambler.
During yesterday’s regular press conference, PJ spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei identified the two suspects as a woman, surnamed Cheong, aged 39; and a man, surnamed Chen, aged 47. Both have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing their respective charges of computer fraud and fraud involving a considerably large amount of money.
In the first case, according to Lei, the Judiciary Police received a call from the non-local female victim on Tuesday, reporting that Cheong, with whom she became acquainted after exchanging chips at a local casino, had surreptitiously used her phone to transfer about 100,000 yuan from her mobile bank account while they were having a meal together earlier that day, adding that as she did not know how to operate mobile banking, she had given her bank account password to the suspect to do it for her.
The Judiciary Police arrested Cheong at a casino in Cotai, who denied committing the crime while refusing to cooperate with the police.
Junket takes chips from gambler: police
In a separate case, the non-local male victim reported a case to the Judiciary Police on Tuesday, claiming that a junket operator from the mainland surnamed Chen took his chips worth HK$2 million, adding that while he and a friend gambled at a casino in Cotai, the friend introduced him to Chen, who then stood behind him and watched him gamble.
Lei also quoted the victim as saying that he won a total of HK$2 million in chips at that time and wanted to convert the small-denomination chips into large-denomination ones so he handed the chips over to his friend standing behind him, adding that, without realising it, Chen, instead of his friend, took the chips and then left.
The Judiciary Police arrested Chen at the same casino where he had taken the victim’s chips. Chen insisted that he had gambled away all the victim’s chips, according to Lei.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei looks on during yesterday’s regular press conference at the PJ headquarters in Zape. – Photo: Yuki Lei
