Two men from the mainland have been arrested for cheating five local renovation firms out of a total of HK$195,000, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lou Chan Fai said during a special press conference on Friday.
The suspects are a 42-year-old man surnamed Hua and a 34-year-old man surnamed Mei. Both told the police that they’re jobless.
According to Lou, earlier this month the police received reports from three of the five victims saying that they had been defrauded by the purported principal of a local school. The “principal” initially called the victims requesting a renovation contract for a school building. Shortly afterwards, the “principal” contacted them again, claiming that the school needed to order mattresses to be donated to a nursing home. Due to a “financial dispute” with the mattress supplier, the “principal” claimed that the school couldn’t order the mattresses and requested the victims to assist with the orders.
One of the victims transferred HK$50,000 to the “principal”, while the other two victims handed over HK$20,000 and HK$47,000 respectively to Hua, who claimed to be the driver of the company supposedly supplying the mattresses. Later, the victims lost contact with the “principal”. Upon verification with the school, they finally realised that they had been scammed and reported the case to the police.
Hua was arrested while meeting with other potential victims on Wednesday. The police discovered two more victims during the investigation. The five victims were scammed out of a total of HK$195,000.
Under questioning, Hua told the police that he had given HK$111,000 to Mei to convert the ill-gotten money into cryptocurrency. Police later apprehended Mei in a guestroom at a Cotai hotel, seizing HK$1,092,000 in cash from him. Police suspected the money was involved in facilitating illegal currency exchange deals.
The two suspects have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing fraud and illegal currency exchange charges, Lou said.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the two hooded fraud suspects to a PJ vehicle outside the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. – Photo courtesy of TDM
