A male teacher was apprehended on Saturday for defrauding two male currency exchange dealers out of HK$400,000 (412,000 patacas) in a currency exchange deal, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Cheong Siu Keong said in a regular press conference yesterday.
The suspect and the two “victims” are mainland Chinese.
Cheong identified the suspect as a 24-year-old male surnamed Xiong who works as a teacher in the Chinese mainland. The victims are a middle-aged man and a young man who are engaged in illegal currency exchange activities in local casinos.
According to Cheong, the Judiciary Police (PJ) received a referral from the Public Security Police (PSP) on Saturday about a casino fraud case. The “victims” told the police that they received a message on Friday night from Xiong, who expressed interest in exchanging HK$400,000 for gambling purposes. They arranged to meet at a casino in Zape to discuss the terms. After agreeing to the exchange, the “victims” handed over HK$400,000 in cash. At that point, Xiong claimed that he needed to verify the authenticity of the banknotes and requested they convert the money into chips.
Cheong noted that Xiong then went with the chips to a gaming table, claiming that he would transfer the money to the “victims” after gambling a bit. However, after gambling away all the chips, he continuously delayed the transfer using various excuses.
Suspecting they had been defrauded, the “victims” reported the case to the police the following day. The police apprehended Xiong that day and discovered that his mobile banking account held only several thousand yuan, which was clearly insufficient to cover the exchange funds. The police seized a smartphone from Xiong.
Xiong has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing a fraud charge.
Cheong said that the police were still investigating the two “victims” for their illegal currency exchange activities.
