Crime | Woman jailed for assaulting and biting officers over cab fare

A woman in her thirties from mainland China started off the New Year by getting arrested in Macau after a disagreement over a taxi ride fare in Cotai.

She had assaulted one police officer and bitten another in the Taipa police station, the Public Security Police Force (PSP) spokesperson said yesterday during a joint police press conference at PSP.
The case started around 11.40p.m. on January 1 when the woman and her taxi driver arrived at the Taipa police station to settle a dispute over the taxi fare.
The driver said he had picked the woman up at a hotel near the Avenida Marginal da Flor de Lotus, driving her to another hotel in Cotai. Upon arrival, the taxi driver requested payment of MOP35. The woman asked to pay in RMB as she had no Macau currency.
The taxi driver agreed, but the woman added that she would pay only RMB29 and not RMB35 as the taxi driver wanted. The driver then took the woman to the police station to seek recompense.

The woman attempted to flee the premises, shoving one police officer and biting another who grabbed her arm in the ensuing brawl. 

She was arrested and accused of three crimes: grievous bodily harm to an officer, damages and resist to arrest. The taxi driver was unable to recover the fare.

In another case, a man, aged 35, was accused of swindling another man in an alleged currency exchange scheme, the Judiciary Police (PJ) said.

The case was reported by the security staff of a casino in NAPE after the men – both from mainland China – fought at the hotel lobby on the last day of 2017.
According to the PJ’s investigation, the victim arranged to meet the suspect to exchange RMB for HKD. As part of the deal, the victim had agreed to pay the suspect RMB50,700 in exchange for HKD60,000.

On that day, the victim used two accounts – WeChat and Alipay – to transfer the total amount to the accused, who claimed that he had not received the funds and could not verify the success of the transfers. He then attempted to flee the scene.

As a fight broke out between the victim and the suspect, the casino security intervened and contacted the PJ.
The suspect informed the police that he could not verify the transfers as his phone was out of battery and said he would proceed with the payment to the victim.

The PJ believes that the man was attempting to carry out a scam, as he did not have the amount owed to the victim on hand at the time of arrest. The bureau also verified the app on the suspect’s phone and acknowledged that one of the victim’s transfers – amounting to RMB33,700 – had been received.

The PJ has detained the suspect and transferred him to the Public Prosecutions Office.

Woman admits exchanging fake USD

A 26 year-old woman from Taiwan has been  accused of passing fake money to two men from mainland China, who were arrested for trying to exchange the currency with a casino cashier, the Judiciary Police (PJ) revealed yesterday.

The case occurred on December 29 at a Cotai casino, where the two men tried to exchange eight USD100 bank notes, totaling USD800, into HKD. The cashier suspected that the notes were forged and called the PJ.

The men told the police that they had received the bank notes from a woman earlier that day in exchange for HKD5,000.

The PJ reviewed the security footage and were able to identify the woman, who was still inside the casino.

The woman admitted to the police that she had passed money to the men but claimed to be unaware that the notes had been forged. She said that she had obtained the money during a recent trip to Singapore. However, she did not explain why she subsequently passed the notes to the men at an exchange rate much lower than their real value, which indicates that she was aware the money was fake.