A local man was arrested on Wednesday for cheating a female non-resident worker out of HK$160,000 by falsely claiming two years ago that he could assist her and her husband to settle in Macau through the Trade and Investment Promotion Institute’s (IPIM) temporary residency programme for technical personnel, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said at a special press conference yesterday.
The 57-year-old local suspect surnamed Ng told the police that he owns a decorating company.
According to Ho, a 49-year-old mainland woman reported to the police last Wednesday that she had been cheated by a local man out of HK$160,000, who falsely claimed two years ago that he could help her and her husband settle in Macau. The woman told the police that she met Ng in 2017 when she worked for the customer service department of a hotel in Cotai.
Ho said that Ng told the victim in August 2018 that he knew senior officials at IPIM and that he could help her and her husband – who lives in the mainland – to settle in Macau by applying for IPIM’s temporary residency programme for technical personnel.
According to the victim, Ng also told her to pay HK$370,000 which would guarantee that her and her husband could obtain Macau ID cards. The woman told the police that she initially paid HK$50,000 requested by Ng for purported “background checks”, and Ng even gave her a receipt.
According to Ho, the victim later paid Ng HK$160,000 for the two “IPIM applications”, while Ng told her that she would have to pay the remaining HK$160,000 “upon notification” by IPIM.
However, afterwards the victim received no news about the application process and repeatedly asked Ng what was going on.
Ng finally claimed that both applications had been unsuccessful and that he would refund the full amount. The victim said Ng told her that he would initially refund HK$50,000 and later the remaining HK$160,000.
The victim, whose surname Ho did not reveal, told the police that Ng only paid her back HK$50,000 and that he gave her a cheque for HK$160,000 in August this year after she had repeatedly asked him for the refund. Ng asked the victim, not to cash the cheque for two months.
However, two months later a bank employee told the victim that the cheque could not be cashed. So the victim decided to report the case to the police.
According to Ho, the Judiciary Police told Ng to report to a police station on Wednesday. Under questioning, Ng admitted to committing the crime due to financial difficulties by falsely claiming that he knew some senior officials at IPIM and therefore could assist the woman and her husband to settle in Macau.
He told the police that he had defrauded the victim out of HK$210,000 and used the money for his personal expenses. He also said that he had used forged documents to convince the victim to trust him that the applications were being processed. Ng said that after numerous requests by the victim, he gave her HK$50,000 but was unable to repay the remaining HK$160,000 so he gave her a “rubber cheque” in order to delay the repayment for a period of time.
Ng was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing a fraud charge involving a considerable amount, officially defined as exceeding HK$150,000 patacas, according to Ho.
The hooded fraud suspect is escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters in Zape to a vehicle yesterday.
Photo: Iong Tat Choi
