A native of the Scottish Hebrides, Norman Mackillop has made Asia his home since 1973 when at the age of 21 he joined the Hong Kong Police. 25 years later he qualified as a barrister at law in England. With the liberalization of the gaming in Macau he moved here as a specialist in corporate investigations for the casino industry.
As a young 3rd Officer in the Merchant Navy, Norman was studying at the Navy Nautical College in Glasgow, Scotland. The building next door was the Glasgow Police Headquarters. By chance one day he popped to pick up some brochures and to enquire out of interest about joining the Scottish Police Force. A close Chinese friend from the Navy suggested that he consider Hong Kong instead. Norman wrote a letter “in those days there was no email!” to the Commissioner of Police in Hong Kong.
A few weeks later he received a very nice reply letting him know that he should direct his enquiries to the UK’s Milbank Crown Office in London. A series of interviews and 3 months later Norman was on a plane bound for Hong Kong. It was June 1973. Then followed 25 years working in organized crime and homicide with the Hong Kong Police. As the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China was approaching he decided to take early retirement and the generous compensation offered by the UK Government. “I left in 1996. I was only 45. I regretted leaving the police and leaving Hong Kong to this day; they were the happiest years of my life.”
2 years ahead of retirement from the police Norman qualified as a barrister at law in England and took the bar exams over a 10-month accrued annual leave. He practiced law with the St Giles Chambers in Northampton for 4 years. The irony was not lost on him that having spent over two decades in chasing down organized crime offenders in Hong Kong, and with a useful proficiency in Cantonese, “I funnily enough found myself then defending a number of Chinese in homicide cases in the UK!”
He then got a job as a senior investigator and legal advisor to the Alderney Gambling Control Commission in the British Channel Islands where he advised on drafting laws and regulations for the internet gambling industry, and conducted pre-licensing international investigations and audits of whitelisted internet gaming sites.
He worked on a case involving the Venetian in Las Vegas for about 6 months where his point of contact was their General Council. The two spoke often about Asia and Macau. One year later, in 2004, the same contact got back in touch to say he was being posted to Macau with the newly opened Venetian Sands Casino. With Norman’s background as a police officer and barrister he had the skills to be a specialist in corporate investigations for the casino industry; would he like to go to Macau too? Norman interviewed in Las Vegas, within a week he’d signed a contract, and in 2005 he was on his way back ‘home’ to Asia, to work as Director of Investigations for Sands, helping improve their internal investigation systems. Incidentally he took over Sully de Fontaine’s role (“a colourful and fascinating character, ex-French Resistance in World War II, with a career in special operations and military police”).
Since arriving in Macau Norman made Hellene Garden in Coloane his home. He would frequent a well-loved rustic open-air beachside restaurant and pub five minutes’ walk away, aptly named Norman’s Bar, (but a different Norman!) It was there that he met Candy, a Zhejiang province native. They married in 2011 and two years later their daughter Jazz was born.
From the Venetian Norman joined an American consulting company, where he was General Manager for Macau. At the time Singapore was developing their gaming industry, the Marina Bay Sands was being built and the government there was considering whether to have casino junkets (organizers of VIP arrangements for high-roller gamblers, taking them to a casino resort with travel and accommodation paid for, usually tied to a commitment to gamble a specific amount.) Commissioned by the Singapore Department of Home Affairs, Norman and his team conducted research and gathered intelligence on the ground for the Macau chapter of the first comprehensive study into the casino junket industry. He investigated the junket applications for a license to operate in Singapore, interviewing many of the junket bosses. In the end, none of the applications were approved and Singapore thus decided not to have junkets as part of their gaming industry, a move that Macau has recently adopted.
From the Venetian, Norman worked for Galaxy Entertainment as Head of Internal Investigations, developing their Corporate Investigations Department. “A job and a company I really enjoyed.”
In February 2018 he started his own company, Diligence Macau Ltd, a specialized gaming compliance and corporate due diligence firm. With extensive criminal investigations expertise “we’re well placed to assist with in-depth pre-employment background checks or checks on vendors in mainland China that require local expertise and ‘boots on the ground’.” He takes on corporate cases, carrying out due diligence and exposing scammers for companies “eager to hook up with a Chinese business as a partner or manufacturer that they have found on line and started communicating directly with.”
Now in his early 70’s, Norman is semi-retired and happy that he and the family can travel more. “Macau is ideally located for short trips around Asia. Jazz and I recently did an open water scuba course together in Koh Samui, Thailand and we’ve just got back from our annual trip to my home town in North Uist, Berneray, the Hebrides, Scotland where I still keep a house and have some cousins and an elderly aunt living there.”
One of Norman’s hobbies is painting – primarily water colours. “I’m working on painting all the temples in Taipa. And most days I walk the family trails with our 4-year-old dog Bonnie. Initially I wanted a Scottish Border Collie and I’d been asking the vets to keep an eye out for one.” But after a long wait the family found a two-week-old ‘local mutt’ during a rain storm in the Lighthouse Park “and the girls convinced me that we should keep her!” Much adored, “she’s a great companion on my walks.”
And home, what drew Norman to move from Coloane to Old Taipa Village? “It was 2007. I was paying HKD12,000 per month rent in Hellene Garden and friends convinced me that I should buy. It made sense; at the time I was 55 and could get a 10-year mortgage from BNU and pay about the same to have my own place. I was always drawn to Old Taipa Village, with its atmosphere, local buzz and countless good eateries. I looked around and came across a brand-new walk-up building, Edificio Chun Mun on Rua Direita Carlos Eugenio, and was given first pick of apartments. Set in the heart of Old Taipa Village, right next to Niall and Bolor Murray’s famous Prem1er Bar, the building is in a superbly convenient location to shops, public transport, health clinics and schools.
Some of the apartments in the building on the lower floors at the back face the slope running up to Our Lady of Carmel church but they were too dark. And of the ones facing the front road, only two have terraces. He opted for the larger 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment, a major selling point being a spacious terrace running the width of the property. Norman was a bachelor at the time and as his family grew it’s been their home ever since. “We love it here, I only wished that the building owners would take more pride in the public areas”, keeping them clean, well-lit and painted. This is the bane of many walk-up residences in Macau.
Full of family photos, Norman’s paintings, memorabilia and collectables from their travels – a large Tibetan Buddhist Thangka hangs above the sofa – the Mackillop home is welcoming, relaxed and cozy. Several pieces of Chinese furniture were bought years ago from the furniture and antique shops that once lined the streets at the foot of St Paul’s Ruins, now long gone, having made way for souvenir, biscuit and beef jerky shops and pharmacies – with their ‘No Fakes’ posters – for the tourists.
What are the Mackillops plans for the near future, do they intend to go to Scotland or perhaps China? “We bought a weekend place in Zhuhai” and showing solidarity to the long-term prospects of Hengqin, “a studio apartment in the Sandiequan Scenic Area of Hengqin as an investment” but Macau will always remain their main residence. “It’s the perfect place for us” exclaims Norman. “The government is stable; it takes care of its people. There’s good medical: I see an excellent doctor within a few minutes’ walk at the free government clinic. The public education is very good: our daughter Jazz was educated at the Sam Yuk school in Taipa. She’s tri-lingual with ease, is an accomplished Latino dancer, she fences, she plays the piano. Importantly she’s never experienced bullying or violent behaviour in any form. “What a wonderful place to raise a child!” Now attending The International School for a change in syllabus to include sports, the arts and overseas cultural trips, she’s exposed to multi nationalities, multi cultures” and is a charming, happy, 13-year-old.
Candy adds: “we appreciate Macau because its small and convenient and we are only a 2-hour flight away for me to visit my mother in Shanghai. We feel very safe here too; ever since very young, Jazz has been able to walk to school on her own.”
For readers’ additional information and interest, check out the ‘Mackillop crime series’ on YouTube.
Article by Ambiente Properties’ Suzanne Watkinson, for the Macau Closer magazine.
Photographs by Suzanne
