 |
| The accused admitted lending her ATM to a scammer she hardly knew |
An overstaying Filipina domestic helper has admitted lending her ATM card to another woman who duped would-be flat tenants of nearly $53,000 in a rental scam.
A.L. Cabancan, 39, pleaded guilty today, Sept. 9 to a charge
of conspiring to commit money laundering and another of breaching her condition
of stay by overstaying her visa for nearly a year.
Magistrate Bina Chainrai remanded her in custody and adjourned
the sentencing to Sept 23.
Cabanban was a former helper who was fired by her employer
on Apr 9 last year but remained in Hong Kong
illegally after her 14-day visa extension lapsed on Apr 23.
 |
| Pindutin para sa detalye! |
She admitted to having lent her ATM card, along with its
password, to a friend named Myla who paid her $3,000, but said she knew nothing
about the huge amounts of cash transactions in the account.
The prosecutor said the Filipina was arrested on Apr 17 this
year at the Skyline Tower Immigration office in Kowloon Bay
Cabanban was initially charged on Apr 20 with two counts of
obtaining property by deception in Kowloon City Court after police
investigating the rental scam that duped two men of $35,000 in total traced a
bank account used in the deception to her.
 |
| Call now! |
The charge said Lee Hok-bun, a Chinese, and Rupert Nicholas
Bickmore, a Briton, replied separately in January 2019 to an online
advertisement of a flat for rent in Central.
They called a Whatsapp number given in the ad and a person
who replied told them to put $14,000 and $21,000, respectively, to a Bank of
China account as rental deposit. The person later required a further deposit of
one month’s rent, but they didn’t do so. They lost contact with the person
afterwards, so they reported to police.
Officers who contacted BOC found that including the $35,000
from the two men, other deposits were made to the account that a total of $52,770 had passed through it between Oct 23 last year and Jan 28 this year.
 | |
|
All the money was withdrawn on 12 occasions on the dates the
deposits were made.
The prosecution said Cabanban was earning a monthly salary of
$4,000, but the bank records did not suggest that the account had been used for
receiving her salary.
In mitigation, the defense lawyer said Cabanban was married
but had separated from her husband in 2011. She used to send $2,000 to the Philippines
 |
| CALL US! |
The lawyer said his client’s only participation in the
offense was to lend her bank account to a stranger in exchange for $3,000.
Cabanban overstayed because she wanted to find a new
employer after losing her job prematurely, said the lawyer.
 |
| PADALA NA! |
