Crime | Luxury cars at the root of turmoil

A Bugatti Chiron at the Geneva Motor Show

Two unrelated cases involving the acquisition of luxury vehicles have been reported by the Judiciary Police (PJ) as being the cause of turmoil in the city, a spokesperson informed yesterday at a press conference held at the PJ headquarters.

In the first case, a man from the mainland, who is the manager of a mainland company that exhibits luxury vehicles, filed a complaint to the PJ against another resident of China, a worker in a local company. The report is against a business that acquired a high-end luxury sports car, a Bugatti, valued at 3.46 million euros (MOP33.8 million).

The company manager said he had come to Macau in February to meet Chang, a 31 year-old sales manager representing a local luxury sports car importer, with whom the manager had made other deals before.

Chang said it was possible to import the car for the company manager and requested a deposit of RMB1.59 million for the acquisition.

After signing the contract, which had official stamps from both companies, Chang told the customer the vehicle’s serial number, which most luxury brand cars have, due to being limited edition.

Following this, the manager of the mainland company went to Hong Kong and tried to acquire another version of the same vehicle from another importer.

After some time, the car he ordered in Macau arrived in Hong Kong and was shortly transferred to Macau, before heading to the mainland. At that time, the manager noted that the serial number matched the one provided by Chang in the first contract.  After this point, he did not hear from Chang any further.

He decided to follow up on the case by seeking for the sales manager at his company.

Besides not being able to find Chang, the customer learned from the company that there were no records of an order of such a vehicle. The man realized that he had been scammed by Chang and promptly made the complaint.

During the investigation, the PJ requested that Chang testify, which he did. He denied being involved in any scam, saying that the money given by the manager was transferred to a Hong Kong company to purchase the vehicle.

But the PJ believes that there is enough proof to show Chang acted in misconduct to get the deposit money from the manager’s company, and has charged him for swindling.

In the second case, which involves a luxury vehicle valued at almost HKD3 million, a man from the mainland filed a complaint with the PJ against a local man over a case of misconduct while taking care of a vehicle.

The story goes back to January 2017 when the victim, the car owner, had a double license plate vehicle for Macau and Zhuhai. The vehicle was in the mainland for more than three consecutive months, which according to China’s laws is not allowed and a penalty was incurred.
The mainland authorities then decided that the vehicle had to leave Zhuhai and come to Macau, and would not be allow in the Mainland territory for a period of one year.

Upon hearing the decision, the owner brought the car into Macau and left it under the care of his friend, the suspect in this case, for the duration of the penalty.

Just as the suspension was ending this month, the owner wanted information about the car in Macau, and learned that the vehicle was pawned for the amount of HKD280,000. The person who was taking care of the car had taken the money from the sale and loaned it to a third person, who wanted to earn profits while exchanging cash for gaming chips at a casino.

Since the third person did not win anything, he did not repay the loan and hence the suspect was unable to retrieve the money that paid for the car.
The victim presented charges against the local man, accusing him of the crime of breach of trust.

Tourism bus driver accused of provoking accident, failing to help victim

A resident, a driver of a tourism bus who is over 50 years of age, is being accused by another resident of having caused an accident and then failing to provide help to the victim, the Public Security Police Force (PSP) spokesperson informed yesterday at the joint press conference.

The accuser said he was riding his motorcycle in the special lane of the Sai Van Bridge on the evening of April 25 when he was hit by one of the flexible traffic separator poles that separates the motorcycle lane to the other vehicles’ lanes, after the bus struck it with enough force to cause it to quickly snap back. In consequence of the event, the motorcycle rider lost control and fell over, being later transported to the Kiang Wu Hospital were he stayed until the next day. The accuser  said that the bus driver failed to pull over and assist him.

After being released from hospital, the man went to police and filed the complaint and the PSP started to investigate the case.
The police then found the driver of the bus and questioned him. The man told the police he was not aware of any accident or the fact that he had hit any separator on the bridge that day. However, the investigation revealed that the bus he was driving has marks that match with such an incident.

The man is being accused of abandonment of the victim in traffic accident. RM