A 63-year-old woman, surnamed Lok, was arrested for buying an Exit-Entry Permit for Travelling to and from Hong Kong and Macau (informally known as “two-way permit”) from two people near Gongbei checkpoint and blackmailing the permit’s owner for money, the Public Security Police (PSP) spokesman Kam Ka Kit during a regular press conference yesterday.

Kam said that at 7:30 p.m. last Wednesday, a female non-resident worker reported to the police that she had lost her “two-way permit”. According to Kam, the victim said that Lok announced on Tuesday in a mobile app group that she had found a two-way permit. Kam added that the victim then called Lok to get her permit back, but the latter requested she pay her 600 patacas plus 250 patacas as a “transportation fee” to get her permit back. Kam said that they planned to meet up at 8:30 p.m. last Wednesday at a hotel entrance in Rua de Cantão but the victim felt cheated, so she reported the case prior to their meeting.

Kam said that the police monitored the meeting between the victim and Lok from afar, adding that the victim failed to get her permit back. Kam also said that the police then went to question the two, and the victim said that Lok refused to return her permit until she paid her 850 patacas.

According to Kam, Lok then confessed that she bought the permit from two strangers at the underground mall near Gongbei checkpoint for 350 yuan. Then Lok decided to post a message online to find the owner of the permit and extort the person for money, Kam added.

According to Kam, Lok was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office last Thursday. She is facing a charge of illegal retention of a document and an extortion charge. 

This undated photo provided by the Public Security Police (PSP) yesterday shows the female suspect being escorted by a PSP officer to a police station.