A local man was lured by a friend whom he had known for more than 20 years into mortgaging his flat to raise HK$1 million for investing in a fake “contracting project”, the full amount of which, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Cheong Kim Fong said yesterday, his friend gambled away.
According to a PJ investigation, Cheong noted, a 37-year-old local cabbie, surnamed Lam, had convinced the victim in April 2022 to mortgage the flat where the victim lives, to a financial firm for HK$1 million so that he could invest in a renovation projects. The cabbie promised him a monthly interest of HK$20,000.
After having been persuaded by his long-time friend that each project could earn him 20 percent interest, the victim handed over HK$1 million to him as an “investment”. Subsequently, Lam forwarded several screenshots of the transfer of the monthly interest to the victim to prove that he had paid the “interest” payments to the financial firm, but it was only on July 5 last year, that the victim received a reminder from the firm that only three interest payments totalling 60,000 patacas had been made.
The victim did not report the case to the Judiciary Police until September last year after Lam had come up with a raft of excuses for not paying the interest to the firm, and finally lost contact with him.
The Judiciary Police arrested Lam on Tuesday at noon at his home in the northern district, who admitted to having cheated the victim out of HK$1 million, claiming that he had gambled away all the money.
Lam has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing charges of fraud involving a considerably large amount of money and computer forgery.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Cheong Kim Fong looks on during yesterday’s regular press conference.
– Photo: Yuki Lei
