Travelling overseas sure is fun especially when you have good memories that come along with the experience. However, it can be the exact opposite if along the way things don’t go as planned. Needless to say, getting into trouble with the law anywhere does not make up for a good experience anywhere.
Some of the problems that we encounter in life are because of external forces that we have no control over with, but most of the time the problems we experience are those that happen because of our doing or mistakes. This is what we need to mindful of, especially when we’re doing transactions overseas as foreign travellers.
3 Filipino Tourists Charged Over Using Allegedly Counterfeit Documents
Three Filipino tourists learned this lesson the hard way after they’ve been caught using fake employment papers to open savings accounts in Hong Kong banks. All three were arrested, detained, and are now facing charges of ‘using a false instrument,’ as shared in a report by the Sun.
According to Magistrate Peter Law, the three accused’s next hearing at the Eastern Court will be on February 19. He also ordered the three defendants identified as Enrique Vargas, Ryan S. Ilustrisimo and Maureen M. Gutierrez to be kept in custody after the prosecution rejected their bail applications.
The new date was set after their court-appointed lawyers appeared on January 7 and asked for a 6-week deferment for further investigation and legal advice.
In their previous court appearance on November 26, the hearing of their case was delayed because no lawyer came to represent on their behalf.
As per Court documents, the three arrived as tourists on Oct 9. The following day, all three were arrested when they tried to open individual savings accounts in a Bank of China (BOC) branch in Admiralty.
According to one of the defendants’ relatives who attended the hearing on Nov. 26 shared that her cousin replied to an advertisement posted on Facebook of a free trip to Hong Kong.
He and the other two defendants were reportedly selected and assisted by two Filipino men about the trip.
The two handlers reportedly escorted the three defendants to Hong Kong and to the two bank branches, but have gotten away before the police arrived at the BOC branch.