The Judiciary Police (PJ) nabbed a man from the Chinese mainland for attempting to defraud an illegal currency exchange dealer on Sunday, PJ spokesman Lei Chi Hou said during a special press conference yesterday.
Lei identified the suspect as a 39-year-old man surnamed Zheng, who claimed to be jobless. Lei said that the victim is a middle-aged man from the Chinese mainland suspected of involvement in illegal currency exchange activities in local casinos, because of which the Judiciary Police have launched a separate case to investigate the matter.
According to Lei, the victim was approached by Zheng in a casino in Cotai. Zheng said he wanted to exchange HK$120,000 (124,000 patacas) worth of chips into yuan. The victim later agreed to exchange chips worth HK$100,000 into yuan, but requested that the chips be taken to the casino cage for verification of authenticity, Lei said.
Zheng refused and hastily left. The victim became suspicious and alerted security, who then intercepted Zheng, according to Lei.
Upon arrival at the scene, Lei said that PJ officers searched Zheng and found 12 HK$10,000 chips and 86 HK$1,000 banknotes, adding that casino staff verified that all of them were bogus chips and fake currency.
According to Lei, the counterfeit chips were similar in size and weight to genuine ones but differed in colour and anti-counterfeiting stickers, and lacked UV labels and embedded chips; the counterfeit banknotes were of average authenticity, lacked watermarks, had rough paper texture, and bore the words “prop” printed on them in English.
Zheng admitted to smuggling the batch of counterfeit chips and banknotes from the Chinese mainland to Macau, with the intention of seeking individuals engaged in illegal currency exchange at casinos.
Zheng has meanwhile been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing a fraud charge.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the hooded fraud suspect from the PJ headquarters to a PJ vehicle in Zape yesterday. – Photo: Armindo Neves
