The Consumer Council (CC) announced last Saturday that it had received seven complaints regarding wedding rings ordered from the Macau branch of a Hong Kong-based wedding ring design centre that were not delivered as promised, while the Judiciary Police (PJ) added yesterday that between last Friday and Wednesday this week, nine local residents reported believing that they had fallen victim to the shop’s scam, with a total of 120,000 patacas involved.
PJ spokesman Chao Teng Hin said: “The Judiciary Police place great importance to the cases and will make every effort to track down the suspects.”
Between October last year and January this year, the victims found the shop on Instagram and ordered diamond rings during exhibitions held at two local hotels in Zape, with the sum involved in their transactions ranging from 7,596 patacas to 20,000 patacas.
According to yesterday’s regular PJ press conference, the victims were informed at the time of their orders that it would take several months to make the diamond rings. However, after several months passed without receiving their goods and upon learning from Hong Kong news that the shop had closed down, they visited its Macau branch at a commercial centre in Zape to enquire further, only to discover that the shop in Macau had also shut its doors.
Chao noted that the PJ investigation identified the suspect as a Hong Kong resident who has since left Macau. He added that, through their cooperation channels, the Judiciary Police informed their counterparts in Hong Kong about the case.
HK Customs nab sole director
Meanwhile, Hong Kong Customs announced earlier yesterday the arrest of a 41-year-old Hong Kong man, the sole director of a wedding ring design company, on Wednesday for his alleged involvement in several recent cases of repeated delays in the delivery of wedding rings ordered by customers, saying that the company eventually closed its retail shops earlier this month
Hong Kong Customs, according to its statement, arrested the man on suspicion of fraudulently accepting payments when selling the products, in contravention of the Trade Descriptions Ordinance (TDO). The statement noted that Hong Kong Customs, as of 8 a.m. yesterday, had received a total of 57 complaints against the company concerned, all of which said that they had placed prepaid orders for wedding rings, but failed to receive the goods or obtain refunds from the company, involving a total of about HK$520,000, with the highest amount of about HK$20,000 in one case.
When asked whether the Hong Kong suspect was the man arrested by Hong Kong Customs, the Judiciary Police said during yesterday afternoon’s press conference that they were in the process of checking with the relevant Hong Kong authorities to confirm the suspect’s identity, adding that further announcements would be made in due course.
The Macau Consumer Council remarked in response to an enquiry by public broadcaster TDM that the number of complaints about the company had reached 16, as of Wednesday.
Neither the Judiciary Police, nor the Consumer Council, nor Hong Kong Customs disclosed the name of the company, but according to several Hong Kong media reports, the company involved is called Mary 5ive, a Hong Kong-based wedding ring design centre which was established 10 years ago and ran three branches, including one in Macau.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chao Teng Hin looks on during yesterday’s regular press conference at the Public Security Police (PSP) press room in Zape. – Photo: Yuki Lei
