Apr 29, 2011
Money mule for Malaysian loan shark fined, jailed
By Khushwant Singh
RETIREE Wong Pong Siew, 61, went to work as a money mule for a loan shark in Johor, making 16 trips to Singapore and returning with some $100,000 between June and September 2010.
On Friday, the Singaporean who lives in Johor with her Malaysian husband, was fined $210,000 and jailed for 10 months by a district court. She would have to serve an additional 14 months if she is unable to pay the fine.
According to court documents, the retiree was promised $1,500 a month by a female loan shark by the name of Jackson for collecting cash from runners here. Wong would take a bus down to Kranji MRT station.
From there, she would board a train to meet Jackson's henchmen in various locations in Woodlands. She would return the same way and hand the cash over to Jackson.
The court heard that as a Singaporean, she was not allowed to drive a Malaysian registered car here. So on nine occasions, she got her sales-executive daughter, Ho Pei Ling, 35, to drive her down. On other instances when her daughter was not free, she got her god-brother, 52-year-old Wong Chee Keong, in her daughter's car.
The accomplices were aware what she up to and on Friday, Ho, a sales executive, was fined $120,000 and jailed seven months. The god-brother, a freelance plumber, was fined $30,000 and jailed six months for the three trips he made with her.
