A mainlander was arrested on Wednesday for falsely reporting a crime to the Judiciary Police (PJ), PJ spokesman Cheong Kim Fong said in a regular press conference yesterday.
Cheong identified the suspect as a 43-year-old man surnamed Wu who told police that he’s jobless.
According to Cheong, on Wednesday afternoon, Wu went to the Judiciary Police purporting to seek help, claiming that he had been extorted by two men posing as PJ officers.
Cheong said that Wu claimed that in the early hours of Wednesday he was stopped and questioned by two men claiming to be PJ officers at a casino in Cotai.
According to Wu, they took him to a garden near the casino and ordered him to hand over all his casino chips, totalling HK$69,000. Afterwards, Wu claimed, they took him to a residential flat for investigation and held him there until his release at 11:30 a.m. the same day. Following the purported incident, Wu went to the Judiciary Police to “report” the case, claiming to seek assistance.
According to Cheong, after investigation, based on the information provided by Wu, the Judiciary Police reviewed the surveillance footage from the area indicated by Wu but found no evidence of anyone interacting with Wu or any sightings of the purported “PJ officers” allegedly involved in the case.
Cheong said that after further investigation, Wu admitted that he had taken HK$70,000 in cash borrowed from a friend to gamble in Macau and gambled it all away. Unable to explain the loss to his friend, he fabricated the extortion story and filed a false police report with the Judiciary Police in an attempt to deceive his friend.
Wu has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing a charge of filing a false crime report.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Cheong Kim Fong looks on during yesterday’s regular press conference. – Photo: Armindo Neves
