A local man has been arrested, suspected of cheating at least seven local residents out of over 9 million patacas by reselling a local department store’s cash vouchers that have couldn’t provide last year, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei said during a special conference yesterday.
The suspect, who was arrested on Tuesday, is a 34-year-old local man surnamed Un, who told police that he’s a businessman.
According to Lei, a cosmetics store owner reported to the police on December 15 last year that he or she had been cheated out of 6 million patacas. Lei did not reveal the gender of the owner.
The victim got to know Un through a friend in July last year. Un claimed that he was able to buy cash vouchers from a large department store at a 25 percent discount to buy goods or cosmetics for resale. The victim made a number of payments which ranged between 300,000 and 400,000 patacas, totalling five million patacas from July to September last year, for which he or she received cash vouchers about 20 days after each payment.
Lei did not identify the department store.
The hooded fraud suspect is escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters in Zape to a vehicle yesterday. Photo: Camy Tam
According to Lei, Un told the victim in October that the VIP Day of the department store was approaching and therefore the demand for cash vouchers was very keen. Un claimed he had a business deal of 100 million patacas with the department store and urged the victim to make additional investments which could get a return of 3 percent and involve the purchase of cash coupons at a 20 percent discount.
Lei said the victim again made a number of payments in November and December amounting to six million patacas to Un but was not able to receive any cash vouchers or return on his or her investment after sending several reminders to Un.
The victim suspected that he or she had been defrauded by Un and reported the case to the police on December 15. Afterwards, two men and four women, all of them local residents, also reported to the police that they had been cheated by Un and his wife surnamed Che.
According to Lei, the seven victims together were cheated out of about nine million patacas.
The police confirmed with the department store that Un could only buy cash vouchers from them at a 5 percent discount. The police are investigating whether there are even more victims involved, according to Lei.
Lei said Un went to the Judiciary Police on Tuesday to assist in the investigation of another case.
Under questioning, Un admitted that he had defrauded the seven victims and used the ill-gotten money to pay debts of about 7 million yuan (7.9 million patacas) as he had incurred a big loss in his “under-the-table” gambling in a casino in Cambodia. Un also confessed that there are other victims of his cash voucher scam.
Un was transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) yesterday while his wife has been told to report to the office for further questioning. Un faces charges of fraud involving a considerable amount, officially defined as exceeding 150,000 patacas, according to Lei.
