A male non-resident worker (NRW) from Malaysia was arrested on Tuesday for defrauding two clients out of a total of HK$200,000 (206,000 patacas), Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lei Chi Hou said during a special press conference yesterday.
Lei identified the suspect as a 36-year-old male surnamed Tan who had worked as a public relations (PR) officer in the VIP lounge of a casino in Cotai since August 2024. The victims are middle-aged men from the Chinese mainland surnamed Chen and Zhou.
According to Lei, the police received a report on Tuesday from Zhou who said that HK$100,000 had disappeared from his casino VIP lounge account. On Monday morning, while on duty at the casino’s VIP lounge, Tan falsely informed the cashier that his client, Chen, needed to withdraw HK$100,000 in cash. The staff then provided a withdrawal slip, on which Tan forged Chen’s signature. After receiving the signed slip, the cashier handed over the cash to Tan, who immediately pocketed it.
Around 4 p.m. the following day, while Zhou was gambling in the VIP lounge, Tan once again deceived the cashier, claiming that Zhou needed to withdraw HK$100,000. Since Zhou had frequently withdrawn chips and signed slips before, Tan seized the opportunity to put his HK$100,000 withdrawal slip together with Zhou’s slips. Unaware of the deception, Zhou signed Tan’s withdrawal slip along with several other slips. Tan then took the slip worth HK$100,000, exchanged it into cash, and transferred the HK$100,000 into Chen’s account in an attempt to cover up his fraud.
The police later apprehended Tan in the VIP lounge. Under questioning, Tan admitted to defrauding the clients by forging a number of documents. He told the police that he was addicted to gambling.
Tan was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing charges of fraud and forgery.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the hooded casino fraud suspect to a PJ van outside the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. – Photo: Ada Lei
