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Yoshitsune Minamoto
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5 years' jail and 10 strokes of the cane for loan shark harassment
By Leong Wee Keat | Posted: 07 April 2010 1902 hrs
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SINGAPORE - The Court has sent out a deterrent message on Wednesday against would-be loan shark harassers and their accomplices, handing out a stiff five-year jail sentence to a 22-year-old man who terrorised nine innocent victims over two weeks last year.
He will also receive 10 strokes of the cane. Besides smashing windows and splashing paint outside victims' flats, Muhammad Harfiyan Ahjiman also used metal chains to lock the gates of four victims.
His reign of terror began on 30 November 2009 at 2am at a Jurong West block where he wrote threatening messages on the wall and used a metal chain to lock a victim's gate. He went to another two blocks in the area and threatened two other innocent victims by scribbling graffiti on the walls and locking the units' gates.
At 11pm that night, he harassed three seventh-floor units of a Hougang block, smashed two windows with a hammer and defaced the wall with a red marker. His harassment then continued across the island in flats in Ang Mo Kio, Ho Ching Road and Bukit Batok East. For each unit he harassed, Muhammad Harfiyan was paid between S$40 and S$150 by unlicensed moneylenders.
Listing seven aggravating factors, Assistant Public Prosecutor Lim Yu Hui urged the court on Wednesday morning to impose a deterrent custodial sentence on Muhammad Harfiyan. In particular, the use of bicycle locks to lock the gates of the four victims' units was "callous and dangerous", Ms Lim argued.
"Such an irresponsible act would have obstructed the occupant's only avenue of escape and would prevent any attempts to rescue them from their premises in the event of any emergency," she added. The Prosecution argued these harassment acts also caused anguish to the victims as all were innocent people who had never borrowed from any loan sharks.
Muhammad Harfiyan admitted his "mistakes" and pleaded for leniency. "I know what I had done is wrong and I hope to change," he added. But District Judge Sarjit Singh agreed with the Prosecution that there were aggravating factors in this case - Muhammad Harfiyan was part of a syndicate which harassed innocent victims and committed "very dangerous acts" of locking the victims' flat gates.
Besides imposing a five-year jail term, Mr Sarjit also ordered the 22-year-old to be caned 10 times. Muhammad Harfiyan's partner in the crimes, Muhammad Faizal Abdul Razak, 21, was also sentenced to three years jail and eight strokes of the cane for the offences. Muhammad Faizal drove his partner to the various housing estates and acted as a look-out for him. He was given S$100 for his assistance.
Loansharking and harassment reports registered a 91-per-cent spike last year, as compared to 2008. Stiffer penalties were introduced in Parliament in January this year to deter loan sharks and their runners. On Tuesday, Police arrested 30 men and six women aged between 14 and 63 years in a 14-hour island-wide crackdown against loansharking activities.
Simultaneous raids were carried out in Boon Lay, Jurong East, Woodlands, Yishun, Ang Mo Kio, Geylang Bahru, Bedok, Tampines and Changi by officers from the Ang Mo Kio Police Division and the Specialised Crime Investigation Branch of CID. - CNA/vm
