Crime | Police detain four over fake marriages

The Public Security Police Force (PSP) has announced that they have detained four people on suspicion of being part of a sham marriage scheme.
Of the four detained, three people were parties to the marriages, and a fourth person, the PSP claimed, acted as an intermediary.
According to the PSP spokesperson, the police received the case through an online report, which said that the third suspect, a 36-year-old woman from the mainland, had a fake marriage in Macau in an attempt to gain resident status.
After checking with the relevant services, the PSP found that she had married the second suspect in 2018, a 43-year-old male from the mainland who had been previously been granted resident status, also by marriage.
The couple had two children, one born in 2011, before the marriage, and another born in 2019.
The police also found that the second suspect had a previous marriage with the first suspect, a 49-year-old local woman, back in 2006.
Four years later, she applied for residency status for the husband claiming a family reunion.
The second suspect and the first suspect were divorced seven years later, and after this, he married the third suspect almost immediately.
According to the fourth suspect, also a local 49-year-old woman, it was she who initially introduced the man to the first suspect in order for them to marry and gain residency in Macau.
She also said that the first suspect got RMB20,000 in compensation for the marriage at the time.
All four are charged with document forgery and providing false declarations to the authorities.