Crime | Man sold domestic helper quota to pay gambling debt

A local man is facing charges of falsifying documents after he sold his quota for hiring a domestic helper, the Judiciary Police (PJ) reported during yesterday’s joint police press conference.
The accused, surnamed Leong, is a Macau resident in his 40s who told the police he is self-employed as a driver.
This illicit employment case was discovered during another PJ operation to crack down on the illegal business of an unapproved medical cosmetics shop.
Earlier, on July 31, the PJ received an email reporting an illegal business operation. Following the tip-off, the police authority raided a facility near the Ruins of St. Paul, where two Vietnamese nationals, one man and one woman, were operating an illegal medical cosmetics business. The Health Bureau (SSM) did not issue any approval for the medical cosmetics business.
On August 28, the PJ handed over the duo to the prosecution authority.
The investigation uncovered that the woman was in possession of a blue-card identifying her as a domestic helper. Her employer was Leong.
Following police interrogation, the woman confessed that her employment status was actually fake. She paid Leong to hire her as a helper, but she never worked in the city providing domestic services.
Leong normally stays in mainland China and does not have a permanent address in Macau. On September 3, he crossed the border to Macau from the Border Gate. The PJ intercepted him after he crossed the checkpoint.
Leong confessed to the police officers that he was in debt as a result of previous gambling activities, which gave him the idea of profiting from his domestic helper quota.
According to Leong, he received 8,000 patacas from the Vietnamese woman as payment.
According to the police, Leong is not involved in the illegal cosmetic business.
At the end of last month, the Public Security Police Force (PSP) found four people suspected of a fake employment case involving a “domestic helper”. In this case, a Filipino woman paid 36,000 patacas to a compatriot to find a local family to hire her as a domestic helper.
The four suspects involve a local couple (surnamed Si Tou and Mak), the man’s sister (surnamed Si Tou) and the Filipino woman (surnamed Castillo).
In 2019, Castillo resigned from her previous domestic helper job and stayed in Macau. Later, she met another Filipino national who offered to help her find another employer family in Macau.
Si Tou convinced her brother and sister-in-law to use their domestic helper quota to hire Castillo. The couple did not receive any money for hiring Castillo whereas the sister earned 15,000 patacas.
All four were charged for falsifying documents.
In June this year, the PSP found 10 Macau residents suspected in an organized fake employment business. This case also helped PSP identify more than five other individuals to the prosecution authority over the course of the last two years for related matters.