PJ arrest three suspected of circulating counterfeit currency

The Judiciary Police (PJ) has apprehended three suspects accused of circulating counterfeit currency.

Police have detained three mainland men after receiving three separate complaints from people who said they had received counterfeit banknotes after exchanging RMB currency for HKD.

When the trio was detained, they were carrying about 100 counterfeit banknotes in denominations of HKD500 and HKD1,000.

The victims reported a loss of some RMB420,000 in the scam.

The detainees said an unknown person had hired them to perform illegal currency exchange activities in local casinos.

They told police they had engaged in currency exchange activities but insisted they did not know the HKD notes were counterfeit.

After gamblers agreed to the currency exchange, the suspects would provide them with a mainland bank account into which the RMB sums would be transferred, and they would receive HKD on-site.

The alleged leader who hired them allegedly told the suspects they would each be paid RMB6,000 if they could exchange all the money they had been given.

The PJ reported the case began to unravel after one of the victims became suspicious about the bank notes he had received. He had a casino clerk check them and discovered they were all fake.

The two other victims had their money checked and, upon realizing they had been defrauded, contacted the PJ.

The PJ confiscated around 800 counterfeit banknotes amounting to HKD500,000 from both the victims and the suspects.