ALLEGED MORTGAGE FRAUD SYNDICATE BROKEN UP
Eleven people have been arrested by Commercial Crime Bureau officers in a two-day operation against a mortgage fraud syndicate. More than 120 locations were raided and the suspects - nine men and two women aged 28 and 48 - alleged to have been involved in 19 fraudulent mortgage applications worth $31.6 million were arrested. Six of the men and one woman will appear in Eastern Court today on charges of conspiracy to defraud, obtaining pecuniary advantages by deception and possession of false instruments. Another man, 41, was still being detained last night, while the remaining three people were released on bail.
Customs seize fake video games worth $600,000
Customs officers made their largest seizure of counterfeit video game cartridges in recent years during a nine-day operation that ended yesterday. A total of 20 shops and hawker stalls on both sides of the harbour were raided. About 6,000 high-quality fake cartridges worth about $600,000 were seized and 17 men and eight women arrested. The head of customs' copyright investigation division, Fung Chi-ho, said the copyright holders had assisted the investigation.
Robbers posing as home buyers steal $100,000
Kowloon City detectives were hunting for two men who posed as property buyers and robbed a homeowner and a real estate agent of their cash, jewellery and other valuables worth more than $100,000. The victims were pushed into a bedroom of the flat on Argyle Street, Mongkok, and bound and gagged before they were robbed. The culprits left them locked in the room while they escaped and withdrew $20,000 from the property owner's bank account.
