The Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested a Hong Kong man on Tuesday suspected of attempting to defraud a man of a watch worth about HK$192,000 in a fake jewellery shop, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesperson said in a press conference yesterday
The spokesperson identified the suspect as a 32-year-old sales person from Hong Kong, surnamed Sou.
According to the spokesperson, the victim is a local man, and he was looking for a buyer for his watch through a post on a social media platform.
On Tuesday, Sou claimed that he wanted to buy the man’s watch for about HK$192,000, after which, Sou asked the man to meet him in his jewellery shop located in a commercial building in Nape, to make a deal, the spokesperson said.
The victim arrived at the shop, and found three men there, two of whom inspected his watch, verified the watch was genuine and then left, after which Sou claimed to have transferred the money through online banking to the victim’s bank account, but the victim never received the money, the spokesperson said.
The victim then received an SMS transfer receipt from the “bank”, but after checking his bank account, it was confirmed that he had still not received the money, and he also noticed that the format of the SMS was suspicious, so he immediately took the watch back, the spokesperson said.
Suddenly, the suspect fled, and the victim ran after him. The suspect was finally intercepted near a casino in Nape with the help of several police officers who happened to be on patrol nearby, the spokesperson said.
Upon investigation, Sou and his two accomplices were found to have set up a “jewellery shop” in a rental unit for HK$5,000 on the same day they committed the crime, and all the jewellery displayed in the shop was found to be fake, the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said that the two accomplices had left Macau through the Outer Ferry Terminal on the same day, and at the time of press conference the Judiciary Police were still looking for the two fugitives.
The police are investigating whether Sou was involved in other cases, the spokesperson said, adding that Sou faces charges of fraud involving a considerably large amount of money and computer forgery.
This photo provided by the Judiciary Police (PJ) yesterday shows the fake jewellery seized from a bogus jewellery shop in Nape.
