Crime | Authorities involved in several cases of fake IDs

During the last few days, the Public Security Police Force (PSP) found several cases relating to identification documents forgery, the PSP spokesperson said in a press conference held yesterday.

In the first case reported, the police found three men, between the ages of 30 and 50 years, in activities deemed suspicious by the officers patrolling the Rua Norte do Patane on May 11 around 6.25 p.m.

Questioned and asked to present identification documents, the men produced six documents (three Macau IDs of non-permanent residents and three Construction Safety Cards issued by the Labor Affairs Bureau).

The officers were suspicious of the documents, as their print quality was poor.

Further questioning revealed that all of the documents presented to the police officers were fake and had been obtained a few days earlier through a person in mainland China who charged them RMB200 each for the forgeries.

The men also told the police that the purpose of obtaining such documents was to be able to come to Macau to gamble.

In a separate case, the PSP encountered a case of a forgotten identification card, this time of a Hong Kong resident aged 40.

The case unfolded when the police were called to intervene in a dispute between two people at the Avenida da Ponte da Amizade.

Arriving at the location, officers requested identification from the parties involved which was when they spotted a Hong Kong ID card that appeared to be of poor quality and was consequently suspected of being a forgery.

Further investigation led to the suspect’s acknowledgement that the card was in fact a forgery that he had acquired it with the help of a man he had met online on a social media platform for the amount of HKD600.

Although it was not clear why the neighboring region resident decided to acquire a forged ID, the man has allegedly justified such actions with the fact that he wanted to come to Macau to gamble and he had lost his own Hong Kong ID.

Old swindling case finally closed

A Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesperson claims that a case dating back to 2012 has finally come to an end with the arrest of the ringleader of a group responsible for several scams involving local residents.

The case from early 2012 involved a total of six women from mainland China who attracted local residents to the scam by claiming to have received a large inheritance from family members in the mainland and deciding to create an investment fund for charitable purposes.

Investors in such funds would be able to capitalize their investment tenfold.

The scam was said at the time to have granted the ringleaders earnings of about MOP7.6 million.

From January to September of 2012 the PJ detained and brought to justice five of the women involved, however the ringleader managed to escape tothe mainland.

The women were all tried in Macau and sentenced to over four years’ imprisonment.

One of the suspects was tried in absentia and recieved a similar sentence.

On May 12 – almost five years after authorities began their search – the leader was finally found in Zhuhai due to a complaint made by a local resident. The woman had tried once again to perform the scam, but on mainland targeting local residents.

In cooperation with the Zhuhai authorities and through the mechanism of cooperation between the judiciary authorities of both sides, the woman was arrested and finally delivered to local authorities.