Crime | Police report growing number of residents scamming each other

From the police authorities’ latest reports, it is possible to see that the number of crimes involving local residents as suspects has been growing significantly.

Among these, crimes against property and crimes against the person have been widely reported. Yesterday, the police forces’ joint press conference was no exception, with it being reported that crimes perpetrated by locals topped the list with a prominence of scams, breach of trust involving large sums of money, violent assault using melee weapons and indecent behavior through illegal video recording and photography in public toilets.

MACAU FRIENDS

In one of the cases mentioned by the Judiciary Police (PJ), a 25-year-old local resident baited a friend of his to join him in an alleged scheme that would grant them both high commissions.
The suspect told his friend that he could join the scheme by adding HKD500,000 to his share, also of HKD500,000, and depositing the combined sum of HKD1 million into an account at a casino VIP room. Such money would then be used in an exchange for gaming chips from which they would get a very profitable commission.

The friend agreed and on April 25 they went to a casino and made the deposit of the cash but after that, the suspect, with the excuse of going to the toilet, disappeared and never returned.

On May 1, after a week without knowing of the whereabouts of the friend, the victim felt deceived and went to the PJ to press charges against him.

During the investigation that followed, the PJ found that just 15 minutes after the money was deposited in that casino, the sum was withdrawn in another VIP room from the same company located in a different casino, concluding that the entire scheme was, in fact, a scam to swindle HKD500,000 from the victim.

On May 3, when the suspect was trying to leave Macau by the airport, he was caught by the immigration authorities and handed over to the PJ. He was sent to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on the same day, under the accusation of fraud.

A LOST ‘SECOND CHANCE’

A property management company is accusing one of their employees of breach of trust over the misappropriation of an amount of around MOP77,000.

The employee, a local resident aged 31, was in charge of collecting condominium fees from house unit owners of several buildings and depositing the collected fees into company’s bank account.

At the beginning of April, the company detected that the employee had diverted a sum of around MOP25,000 from the collected fees and had questioned him about the case.

At the time, he admitted the misconduct, promising to return the money to the company as soon as possible, so the employers granted him a second chance.

But, on April 28, the company realized that he did not have the intention to fulfill his promise. Instead, he misappropriated again – this time an even higher sum (MOP52,000) – and so they decided to finally press charges against him.

Questioned by the PJ, the suspect justified his actions with the need to repay gambling debts that he had accumulated.

‘PEEPING TOM’ CAUGHT IN PUBLIC TOILETS

A 30-year-old local male has been caught in the act of indecent conduct, filming and photographing women while they used public toilets.

The alert for the case was triggered by a woman who, on May 3,while entering the toilet in a shopping mall in the city, noted that there was a mobile phone peering at her from under the adjoining cubicle.

She then went out and waited to see who would emerge from the cubicle. After a few minutes, she saw a man coming out and tried to stop him but was unable to do so and he escaped.

She then presented a formal complaint to the Public Security Police Force (PSP), which dispatched officers to the location.

The PSP officers reviewed the surveillance recordings from the shopping mall and were able to spot and identify the man.

A search performed on the man’s residence found that on that same day he had already filmed and photographed six other women in the same place. In addition, according to the records found on the mobile phone he had, since March this year, he gathered a collection of 1,063 photographs and 45 video recordings of an undisclosed number of women in different public toilets across the city. When questioned, the suspect admitted the crime.

His case was forwarded yesterday to the Public Prosecutions Office, where he is being accused of illicit recording.

LOCAL MAN SCAMMED OVER PROSTITUTE

A Macau resident in his thirties was involved in a scam over the hiring of an alleged prostitute who he had met through the social network mobile application WeChat.

The man told the PJ that he had met the alleged woman on the afternoon of April 28 and had a conversation in which she revealed the nature and prices of her services, ranging from MOP800 to MOP1,300.

On the evening of May 1, the man decided to contract her services and after a chat, he agreed to meet this person at a residential building in the Fai Chi Kei area.

Arriving at the place, he instead met a man who claimed to be the “boss” of the girl and demanded he buy a total of MOP20,000 in “MyCard” point cards in a convenience store nearby in order to pay for the services and as a safety deposit.

The man agreed, but after paying the MOP20,000 he was left waiting for a long period without news, until he decided to call the deal off and get a refund of his MOP20,000.

At this moment, he was warned by the same man that in order to get full refund he needed to buy another MOP20,000, threatening him that if he decided not to do that, the boss could harm his family members.

After the second payment, the victim totally ended the contact with the people and decided to go to the PJ to complain about the scam in which he had been involved, having reportedly lost the amount of MOP40,000.