33 nabbed for assisting in loanshark activities
AsiaOne
Friday, Mar 15, 2013
SINGAPORE - In two separate operations, Police have arrested 24 men and 9 women aged between 17 and 64, for suspected involvement in loansharking activities.
In the first operation, police officers conducted a 24-hour anti-loansharking operation from March 13 to 14. They arrested 18 men and 7 women in the vicinity of Jurong West Avenue 5 and Sungei Kadut, for suspected involvement in loansharking activities.
They were believed to have opened bank accounts and given away their Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards and Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) to loansharks to facilitate their businesses. All the suspects were believed to be borrowers or guarantors.
In the second operation, following up on investigations into cases of loansharking activities, officers conducted simultaneous raids in various parts of Singapore in a round-the-clock operation from March 14 to 15. They arrested 6 men and 2 women.
Preliminary investigations revealed that they were also believed to have opened bank accounts and gave away their ATM cards and PINs to loanshark syndicates to facilitate their unlicensed moneylending businesses. Several bank cards and transaction receipts were seized from the suspects.
Police investigations against all 33 suspects are ongoing. Under the Moneylenders Act 2010 (Revised Edition), first-time offenders found guilty of assisting in the carrying on of the business of an unlicensed moneylender, may be fined not less than $30,000 and not more than $300,000, be imprisoned for a term not exceeding four years and shall also be liable to be punished with caning of not more than six strokes.
