The District Court today sent three men and two women, aged 29 to 43, to jail for up to five years for street deception, while another 40-year-old man was jailed for two years for mortgage fraud.

Police urged the public to be cautious and to speak with their family members before presenting valuables for 'blessings'.

In an anti-street deception operation in Chai Wan on August 23 last year, three people lured a 67-year-old woman to retrieve cash and jewellery valued at $50,000 for 'spiritual blessing'. Officers arrested them, together with two other men found connected with the case.

One defendant, a 34-year-old woman, had also been involved in another street deception case in Tuen Mun on April 24, in which a 52-year-old woman was persuaded to surrender $166,000 in cash and jewellery.

The five were jointly charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud while the 34-year-old was also charged with one count of obtaining property by deception.  They pleaded guilty to the charges.

Mortgage fraud

The defendant of the mortgage fraud case had offered his 50-year-old business partner a $10 million residential flat as collateral to raise his company's credit line in June 2006. He submitted forged title deeds and succeeded in making a mortgage agreement with his partner.

He then exhausted his $5 million credit limit in three months but did not repay his partner. The case was uncovered last January when the genuine flat owner intended to apply for a mortgage loan but found his flat had already been mortgaged.

The defendant was arrested last June and charged with one count of fraud, one count of using false instrument and one count of theft.