A Chinese national has been arrested in Australia for allegedly duping people by selling Buddha statues and ingots made from fake gold.
New South Wales (NSW) police arrested 35-year-old Ming Zhu yesterday from a hotel in Pyrmont in Sydney and seized eight fake gold Buddha statues and 100 replica gold ingots.
Ming, who has been in Australia for three months, was targeting members of Sydney's Chinese community and allegedly tricked a woman out of 60,000 dollar in one transaction.
The woman, whom Ming contacted by phone, discovered the alleged fraud after she took the Buddha statues and ingots to a gold dealer and found that they were only gold-painted ones made from copper, Sydney Morning Herald reported.
She complained to police which launched an investigation and arrested him.
Besides Buddha statues and ingots, police also seized several real gold pieces, five mobile phones, various currencies and photocopies of allegedly fake passports from him.
Detective Superintendent Mark Jones said that, if it was genuine, the amount of gold Ming was allegedly trying to sell would be valued in the millions of dollars.
"We certainly have our suspicions that in this incident it was not just one individual working in isolation," Jones said.
Ming has been charged with possessing identity information to commit an indictable offence, dealing with the suspected proceeds of crime and two counts of dishonestly obtaining property by deception.
