The Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested a local woman on suspicion of stealing HK$1.33 million (1.37 million patacas) last Wednesday from the hotel where she worked, PJ spokeswoman Leong Sok Man said during a regular press conference yesterday.
Leong identified the suspect as a 47-year-old teller surnamed Hon.
According to Leong, Hon had been employed since 2021 at the hotel in Cotai, where she was responsible for managing cash flow in the accounting department. Leong said that between May and mid-June this year, Hon took advantage of occasions when she was left alone in the office to steal cash from the company safe and the cash-counting machine on four separate occasions.
After each theft, Hon returned unrecorded cash from the counting machine to the safe to cover her tracks, meaning the discrepancy was not discovered immediately, Leong said. She added that the suspect used all the stolen cash of HK$1.33 million for gambling and repaying credit card debts.
Realising her actions were about to be exposed ahead of the hotel’s routine financial review on July 1, and that she was unable to repay the money, Hon voluntarily confessed to the theft to the hotel manager, Leong said. The hotel subsequently reported the matter to the police.
Hon has since been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing a charge of breach of trust.
According to Article 199 of the Macau Penal Code, the suspect faces a prison term of between one and eight years.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Leong Sok Man looks on during yesterday’s regular press conference. – Photo: Armindo Neves
