A man from the mainland was arrested on Sunday for defrauding two local women of a total of 1,600 patacas, Public Security Police (PSP) spokesman Lei Chan Hong said during a regular press conference yesterday.
Lei identified the suspect as a male surnamed Li in his seventies who told the police that he’s jobless.
According to Lei, the police received two reports on Saturday and Sunday respectively from two local women who said that they were approached by Li in the Barrier Gate Plaza, where he told the victims separately that he wanted to exchange Hong Kong dollars into patacas. Li offered the first victim an exchange of HK$3,000 for 3,000 patacas, while he offered the second victim an exchange of HK$1,000 for 1,000 patacas. After handing their pataca banknotes to Li, he stopped the transactions for different reasons and returned the patacas to the victims before leaving the scene.
Macau’s pataca is pegged to the Hong Kong dollar. For instance, HK$3,000 is worth 3,087 patacas.
Lei noted that after three to five minutes, when the two victims counted their cash, the first victim discovered that 1,000 patacas had gone missing, while the second victim found out that 600 patacas had disappeared. Suspecting that they were defrauded, they immediately reported the cases to the police.
Using the citywide surveillance system, the police identified Li as the suspect and apprehended him on Sunday near the Outer Harbour Reservoir.
Under questioning, Li admitted to defrauding the two victims, and he told police that he had gambled away all the money.
Li has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing a fraud charge.
This undated handout photo provided by the Public Security Police (PSP) yesterday shows a PSP officer escorting the currency exchange fraud suspect into a police station.
