The Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested a tourist on Saturday for swapping a genuine diamond watch for a counterfeit one in a jewellery shop in Zape, PJ spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei said during a special press conference in Zape yesterday.
According to Lei, the female suspect is a 27-year-old tourist surnamed Dong. She told the police that she is from the mainland and unemployed.
Lei told The Macau Post Daily that Dong went to a shop in Zhuhai’s Gongbei underground mall and ordered a “tailor-made” fake Van Cleef & Arpels watch in January. She paid 10,000 yuan (11,700 patacas) for the counterfeit watch.
Van Cleef & Arpels is a French luxury jewellery, watch, and perfume company.
Dong used the bogus watch to swap for a genuine one in Macau on April 28. Dong told the police that she went back to the jewellery shop where she had seen the original watch last year, after which she decided to order the “tailor-made” bogus one in Gongbei so that she could swap it for the “real thing” in Macau later.
According to Lei, Dong went to the shop in a hotel in Zape. Lei did not reveal the name of the hotel.
Dong entered the shop in the morning and tried on a Van Cleef & Arpels deluxe diamond watch. Then she gave it back to a sales assistant and left the shop. Dong returned in the afternoon when she tried on the same watch for the second time. Using her clothes as a cover, she finally succeeded in swapping the genuine watch with her counterfeit one. The sales assistant did not notice the sleight of hand and put the bogus watch into the window display, Lei said
Dong returned to the mainland a few days after committing the crime, Lei added.
The shop manager discovered what had happened when the staff were counting the number of items in the window display of the shop on May 15. The case was reported to the police with a loss of 795,000 patacas, Lei said.
Thanks to the shop’s CCTV camera footage, police identified Dong as the suspect. She was taken to a police station for questioning after arriving at the local airport on Saturday.
The stolen watch was found among Dong’s personal belongings when she was searched at the police station, Lei added.
Lei described the quality of the fake watch as “looking quite real”.
The Judiciary Police have transferred Dong to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP). She is facing an aggravated fraud charge, Lei said.
According to Article 211 of the Macau Penal Code, aggravated fraud is punishable between two and 10 years behind bars.
This photo shows the two watches seized from the suspect by the Judiciary Police (PJ), the genuine Van Cleef & Arpels diamond watch (left) and the tailor-made bogus one, displayed at the PJ headquarters yesterday. Photo: Iong Tat Choi
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the suspect to a police vehicle outside the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. Photo: Kristy Chan
PLEASE READ THE FULL ARTICLE IN OUR PRINT EDITION.
