A local man has been arrested for defrauding 10 people out of 267,700 patacas by claiming that he could help them get local work permits (colloquially known as “blue cards”) for their friends and family members, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said at a special press conference yesterday.
The 58-year-old suspect is surnamed Lai. He told the police that he’s jobless.
According to Ho, the 10 victims, comprising one local man and nine men from the mainland, in February had been introduced by an intermediary to Lai who claimed to represent a construction company that was hiring workers from the mainland.
The victims believed Lai and gave the fraudster, who charged each person from 2,000 to 3,500 patacas per application, a total of 267,700 patacas, in the hope of getting, for 50 of their friends and family members, blue cards and jobs in the company.
After receiving the money, Lai sent screenshots of signed documents and blue cards to the victims. However, he continuously came up with excuses and delayed providing the actual documents. Last month, the victims lost contact with Lai and separately decided to report the case to the authorities.
Lai was arrested when he re-entered Macau through the HK-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge checkpoint. Under questioning, Lai admitted to scamming the victims and told the police that he lied to the intermediary so as to back up his purported status as a representative of the construction company. He claimed that all the proceeds from the fraud had already been spent on daily expenses.
Lai was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing fraud charges, according to Ho.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the local fraud suspect to a PJ vehicle outside the PJ headquarters.
– Photo: William Chan
