Man arrested for cheating fare from taxi driver’s Octopus card
A 25-year-old man was arrested for swindling a taxi driver into paying his fare with his Octopus card and not reimbursing the driver.
Police received a report from a driver on March 14, who said a passenger claimed he didn’t have cash on him and hoped to pay his fare with the driver’s Octopus card, thereby swindling the cabbie out of the fare.
Upon reaching the destination, he told the driver that he had transferred the fare to the driver’s Octopus card from his Octopus e-wallet. The driver then used that Octopus card to pay the fare but later saw that there was only money deducted and that the passenger had not topped up the card as he claimed.
The case was then handled by the Yau Tsim district crime squad, and officers soon detected another similar crime in the district.
After an investigation, officers on Wednesday arrested the 25-year-old man in Yau Ma Tei on suspicion of obtaining property through deception. Police have laid two counts of the charge against him, and he will appear in Kowloon city Magistrates’ Courts on May 17.
During the operation, police also seized a cellphone and the clothes the man was wearing when committing the crime.
Meanwhile, police warned citizens to stay alert and not give their Octopus cards to others for electronic payment as the HK$5,000 consumption vouchers have been distributed to citizens today (Thu).
Officers also called on taxi drivers to contact Yau Tsim district criminal investigation team by dialing 3661 9260 if they fall victim to similar crime.