Police busted on Tuesday a gang involved in gouging prices and blackmailing customers, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said at a special press conference yesterday.

Ho identified the suspects as Liu, a 43-year-old jobless man who overstayed in Macau for two weeks; Sun, a 42-year-old jobless man; Sheng, a truck driver aged 37; Jiang, a renovation worker aged 30; and Sun, a local 54-year-old housewife. All male suspects are from the mainland. The Suns are siblings.

According to Ho, a resident saw an online advertisement in mid-November claiming to offer water leakage repair services. After contacting them, Liu and Sun arrived at the victim’s home in late November and said that they would inject glue into the wall to fix the leakage, quoting a price of 12,000 patacas. 

After finishing the work, Liu told the victim that the leakage was too “serious” and the operation cost 44,000 patacas instead. Ho noted that Liu, accompanied by the 42-year-old Sun, was holding an electric drill when he threatened the victim that “someone” would come to their home to “greet” them if he or she didn’t pay up immediately

The victim felt scared and paid 44,000 patacas to Liu, after which the victim, whose gender was not revealed by Ho, discovered that the leakage was not fixed at all and reported the case to the police.

Meanwhile, three other victims separately reported that they had faced price gouging in October and November, pointing out that Liu and his accomplices Jiang and Sun charged them several times higher than the quoted amount when supposedly fixing water leakage at their home.

Ho added that the suspects would initially claim that three to eight kilogrammes of glue, worth 500 patacas per kg, would be injected into the wall to “fix” the leakage. Upon completion, the fraudsters said that a purported 20 kg of glue had been used instead, and increased the price from less than 5,000 to over 30,000 patacas. Two of the victims ended up paying a total of 64,000 patacas to the fraudsters.

According to Ho, professional maintenance engineers told the Judiciary Police that based on video footage retrieved from the victims’ homes, the suspects’ operations were completely bogus. 

Under questioning, the suspects admitted the crime. Liu alleged that an intermediary had arranged the jobs for them and the 42-year-old Sun was his apprentice, while the 54-year-old Sun and Jiang were tasked with transportation services for them.

The quintet were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing charges of organised crime and fraud. Liu and the Suns also face blackmail charges, Ho noted. 

Evidence seized from the five suspects such as two bottles of glue, equipment and banknotes is displayed at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters yesterday.
– Photo: William Chan