A senior pawnshop employee was arrested on Wednesday for stealing cash from a safe on seven occasions while on duty, since last week, totalling HK$1.23 million, with most of the money gambled away, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Leng Kam Lon said during a regular press conference yesterday.
Leng identified the suspect as a local man in his fifties surnamed Wong, who had worked at the pawnshop, located in Nape, for “many” years.
According to Leng, Wong’s embezzlement was discovered by another staff member, whose gender was not revealed, on Wednesday afternoon in a shift change when the staff member conducted an inventory check of the cash stored in the safe. Until the shift change, Wong had been responsible for safeguarding the cash contained in the safe.
After the inventory check, Leng said, the staff member found that some of the cash had gone missing, afterwards trying to contact Wong but to no avail.
Suspecting that Wong had embezzled the money, the staff member reported the case to the Judiciary Police at around 3 p.m.
According to Leng, PJ officers went to Wong’s home but did not find him, after which they managed to locate him and intercepted him in a casino in Nape at around 4 p.m. on the same day when he was gambling there.
Under questioning by the police, Leng said, Wong admitted embezzling money from the pawnshop. He told the police that between Wednesday last week and Wednesday this week, Wong by taking advantage of moments when no one was around in the pawnshop, stole money from the safe on seven occasions, with the amounts ranging from HK$100,000 to HK$300,000 each time.
Each time after stealing money from the safe, Leng said, Wong went to casinos after work and gambled with the stolen money.
According to Leng, the pawnshop confirmed that HK$1.23 million was stolen from the safe.
The police seized gaming chips worth HK$171,100 from Wong, confirming that all of them were bought with the money he had embezzled from the pawnshop, Leng said.
Wong has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) for further questioning and investigation, facing a charge of embezzlement involving an amount of over 150,000 patacas.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Leng Kam Lon looks on during yesterday’s regular press conference. – Photo: Tony Wong
