A 66-year-old local man put his flat up for sale without telling his wife and received a HK$100,000 deposit from a buyer, who realised that he had been cheated after the deal couldn’t go through and he didn’t get his money back, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Choi Ian Fai said during the regular press conference on Tuesday.
According to Choi, a local man in his 50s wanted to buy a flat worth HK$2.75 million in Rua do Tarrafeiro through a property agent on January 19. The man paid a HK$100,000 deposit to the property owner Lei, the suspect in the case.
Choi said that Lei initially showed the victim documents indicating that the flat was registered in his name, and that he was single.
But when they were at a lawyer’s office to sign the sale and purchase agreement on February 24, the deal couldn’t go through because it needed Lei’s wife’s signature too, as she is a co- owner of the flat because of a prenuptial agreement.
Choi said that Lei then told the victim that he would speak to his family and return the deposit to him. However, the victim never got the money back, and began to suspect that he was being cheated, and so reported the case to the police.
According to Choi, when the police arrested Lei last Friday, they discovered that he was planning to leave Macau.
Choi said that Lei, who claims to be unemployed, admitted to the fraud and told the police he has already gambled HK$50,000 away. Choi said that while Lei did buy the flat when he was single, the situation changed once he got married, as under the prenuptial agreement his wife became a co-owner of the property.
Choi said that Lei went ahead with selling the flat, even though he knew about the changes in the flat’s ownership after he got married, which constitutes fraud.
The case has been transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) for further investigation. Lei faces charges of fraud involving a considerable amount, officially defined as ranging between 30,000 and 150,000 patacas.
