Ex-beauty queen hounded by loansharks meets tragic end
[Top: Mr Yee, holding a picture of his late wife.]
THE Saturday morning began like any other. It ended with the horror of a husband watching his wife fall seven floors before his very eyes, his frantic efforts to revive her, and his overwhelming grief.
'My heart broke,' said Mr Yee Meng Yong. 'That was the saddest and most painful moment of my life.'
More grief was to come: He discovered from her suicide note and her handphone that she'd been hounded to her death by at least six loan sharks.
On 18 Oct, the couple woke up at 3am to prepare to leave for work, running their popular minced meat noodles stall at a hawker centre in Kovan.
As was their routine, Mr Yee, 46, got up first, while his wife 'lay in bed to catch a bit more sleep', he said.
He went down to the carpark to start the car and wait for her.
But she took longer than usual. He called home, but she was not there. His calls to her handphone also went unanswered.
He decided to check on her. He walked towards the lift lobby of their home in Block317C, Anchorvale Road, and saw his wife falling down.
Said Mr Yee: 'I suddenly noticed something on my left-hand side, not far from where I was standing, falling onto the ground. There was a loud thud.
'When I went closer to take a look, I realised that it was my wife.'
He went on to describe the heartbreaking scene: 'I rushed forward to hug her. She was still breathing although she was very weak.
'I performed CPR on her, but it was too late. She breathed her last breath in my arms.'
There were more shocks to come for Mr Yee, who later discovered a three-page suicide note she wrote in Chinese.
His wife, Madam Joanna Law, 42, was struggling with secrets that eventually ended in her death.
She was a former beauty queen who was called the 'flower of Punggol'. One of the few highlights of her life was when she made it to the finals of a beauty pageant as a 32-year-old mother of three in 1998.
Madam Law and her husband were described as a
loving couple by those who knew them.
Born into a poor family that could not even afford to pay 30 cents for a catty of rice, she was given away at birth to a famous Punggol-based minced-meat noodle hawker and his wife, who would later become mentally ill.
Her adoptive father was a gambler, and she spent much of her childhood toiling at the stall - as she would in adulthood.
Those who knew her described her as a happy-go-lucky, cheerful and vivacious person.
Yet, under that bubbly exterior was a woman so overwhelmed by her growing mountain of debt that she felt she had no choice other than to 'pay for the remaining debts with my life', wrote Madam Law in the suicide note addressed to her husband and three children.
Suffering
Madam Law's mother-in-law, Mrs Yee, 70, said to The New Paper in Mandarin: 'She worked so hard, working every day for 12hours, and would return home with hands red and swollen from cooking and preparing food.
'I felt so sorry to see her suffer like that and asked her 'Why must you work so hard?' She would say that she needed the money.'
Added Mrs Yee: 'But she would also say 'No matter how hard I work, and how much I earn, there never seems to be enough money'.'
The only one who knew about Madam Law's debts, it seems, was her husband.
But even he was not aware of the full extent of their debt.
He did not know why she killed herself until he read the suicide note in which she revealed that she was 'very tired from working hard to pay off the family's loans'.
She wrote that she hoped all the debts 'will disappear along with me'.
In the letter, she also admitted that she was a 'stupid wife' who 'does not know how to manage the family's finances'.
Mr Yee said his wife was entrusted with managing the finances for their stall and household of seven, which included her 60-year-old adoptive mother and a maid.
The couple's financial woes began, said Mr Yee, when they had to move their stall twice in the past one year. They chalked up a hefty bill of more than $40,000 in renovation expenses.
They also had to put their 23-year-old son and 21-year-old daughter through polytechnic. Their youngest, a girl, is 16.
Money was tight, despite their booming business.
Why borrow from loan sharks?
Mr Yee said: 'We desperately needed to pay off our bills.
'We don't have credit cards, and our income was unstable so we could not take a bank loan. My wife also did not want to borrow from other people because she didn't want to be obligated to anyone.'
The original sum of money Madam Law borrowed from the loan sharks amounted to 'thousands', said her husband.
But, the sky-high interest caused the amount to escalate beyond her initial expectations.
She ended up borrowing from at least five loan sharks to pay debts she owed the first loan shark.
Mr Yee said he only discovered the extent of her debts when he took over her handphone after she died, and received calls from the loan sharks.
Mr Yee, who lost his right hand in a workplace incident 25 years ago, said: 'She kept it to herself because she didn't want us to worry. I would often ask her if we had repaid everything, and she would say 'more or less'.'
He now knows she was so fearful that the loan sharks would come after her family that she 'did not think straight'.
He said: 'She wanted to protect us. She loved us so much that she sacrificed her life.
'I don't blame her for doing what she did. But I am angry that she did not share her problems so that we could bear the burden together as a family and try to resolve these problems together.'
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They borrow from one loan shark to pay another
BEING in debt to loan sharks can lead to the desperation of borrowing from one loan shark to pay another.
Rev Dr Edward Job, President of Christian Care Services, a centre that provides assistance to victims of loan shark harassment, said: 'It is not unheard of for a person to borrow money from more than one loan shark. It's not unusual for one person to have borrowed from 30 to 40 loan sharks.
'I even had a recent case of someone who had borrowed from 80 loan sharks.'
He said that his centre helps debtors negotiate payment methods and terms with loan sharks.
'We cannot get the loan shark to cancel the debt, but we can discuss with them (the loan sharks) how the debtor can repay the amount.'
Since 2005, penalties under the Moneylenders Act have been enhanced.
Assets of convicted loan sharks can now be confiscated. The passports of loan sharks can be cancelled and they also face a 10-year travel ban to prevent them from running syndicates from outside Singapore.
Loan sharks can also be detained under the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act. Since April this year, persons who apply to update their home address in their NRICs are required to furnish proof that they are staying at that address to minimise the likelihood of borrowers giving false addresses to loan sharks.
Probably the 40thousands dollars debt is part of the problem, when a person feels so tired, because of the daily toil to make ends meet, have to take care of the husband/wife, his and her parents, the children, debts etc. Sometimes they just want to end it all. Very sad indeed. My condolences to the family.
[Top: Mr Yee, holding a picture of his late wife.]
THE Saturday morning began like any other. It ended with the horror of a husband watching his wife fall seven floors before his very eyes, his frantic efforts to revive her, and his overwhelming grief.
'My heart broke,' said Mr Yee Meng Yong. 'That was the saddest and most painful moment of my life.'
More grief was to come: He discovered from her suicide note and her handphone that she'd been hounded to her death by at least six loan sharks.
On 18 Oct, the couple woke up at 3am to prepare to leave for work, running their popular minced meat noodles stall at a hawker centre in Kovan.
As was their routine, Mr Yee, 46, got up first, while his wife 'lay in bed to catch a bit more sleep', he said.
He went down to the carpark to start the car and wait for her.
But she took longer than usual. He called home, but she was not there. His calls to her handphone also went unanswered.
He decided to check on her. He walked towards the lift lobby of their home in Block317C, Anchorvale Road, and saw his wife falling down.
Said Mr Yee: 'I suddenly noticed something on my left-hand side, not far from where I was standing, falling onto the ground. There was a loud thud.
'When I went closer to take a look, I realised that it was my wife.'
He went on to describe the heartbreaking scene: 'I rushed forward to hug her. She was still breathing although she was very weak.
'I performed CPR on her, but it was too late. She breathed her last breath in my arms.'
There were more shocks to come for Mr Yee, who later discovered a three-page suicide note she wrote in Chinese.
His wife, Madam Joanna Law, 42, was struggling with secrets that eventually ended in her death.
She was a former beauty queen who was called the 'flower of Punggol'. One of the few highlights of her life was when she made it to the finals of a beauty pageant as a 32-year-old mother of three in 1998.
Madam Law and her husband were described as a
loving couple by those who knew them.
Born into a poor family that could not even afford to pay 30 cents for a catty of rice, she was given away at birth to a famous Punggol-based minced-meat noodle hawker and his wife, who would later become mentally ill.
Her adoptive father was a gambler, and she spent much of her childhood toiling at the stall - as she would in adulthood.
Those who knew her described her as a happy-go-lucky, cheerful and vivacious person.
Yet, under that bubbly exterior was a woman so overwhelmed by her growing mountain of debt that she felt she had no choice other than to 'pay for the remaining debts with my life', wrote Madam Law in the suicide note addressed to her husband and three children.
Suffering
Madam Law's mother-in-law, Mrs Yee, 70, said to The New Paper in Mandarin: 'She worked so hard, working every day for 12hours, and would return home with hands red and swollen from cooking and preparing food.
'I felt so sorry to see her suffer like that and asked her 'Why must you work so hard?' She would say that she needed the money.'
Added Mrs Yee: 'But she would also say 'No matter how hard I work, and how much I earn, there never seems to be enough money'.'
The only one who knew about Madam Law's debts, it seems, was her husband.
But even he was not aware of the full extent of their debt.
He did not know why she killed herself until he read the suicide note in which she revealed that she was 'very tired from working hard to pay off the family's loans'.
She wrote that she hoped all the debts 'will disappear along with me'.
In the letter, she also admitted that she was a 'stupid wife' who 'does not know how to manage the family's finances'.
Mr Yee said his wife was entrusted with managing the finances for their stall and household of seven, which included her 60-year-old adoptive mother and a maid.
The couple's financial woes began, said Mr Yee, when they had to move their stall twice in the past one year. They chalked up a hefty bill of more than $40,000 in renovation expenses.
They also had to put their 23-year-old son and 21-year-old daughter through polytechnic. Their youngest, a girl, is 16.
Money was tight, despite their booming business.
Why borrow from loan sharks?
Mr Yee said: 'We desperately needed to pay off our bills.
'We don't have credit cards, and our income was unstable so we could not take a bank loan. My wife also did not want to borrow from other people because she didn't want to be obligated to anyone.'
The original sum of money Madam Law borrowed from the loan sharks amounted to 'thousands', said her husband.
But, the sky-high interest caused the amount to escalate beyond her initial expectations.
She ended up borrowing from at least five loan sharks to pay debts she owed the first loan shark.
Mr Yee said he only discovered the extent of her debts when he took over her handphone after she died, and received calls from the loan sharks.
Mr Yee, who lost his right hand in a workplace incident 25 years ago, said: 'She kept it to herself because she didn't want us to worry. I would often ask her if we had repaid everything, and she would say 'more or less'.'
He now knows she was so fearful that the loan sharks would come after her family that she 'did not think straight'.
He said: 'She wanted to protect us. She loved us so much that she sacrificed her life.
'I don't blame her for doing what she did. But I am angry that she did not share her problems so that we could bear the burden together as a family and try to resolve these problems together.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
They borrow from one loan shark to pay another
BEING in debt to loan sharks can lead to the desperation of borrowing from one loan shark to pay another.
Rev Dr Edward Job, President of Christian Care Services, a centre that provides assistance to victims of loan shark harassment, said: 'It is not unheard of for a person to borrow money from more than one loan shark. It's not unusual for one person to have borrowed from 30 to 40 loan sharks.
'I even had a recent case of someone who had borrowed from 80 loan sharks.'
He said that his centre helps debtors negotiate payment methods and terms with loan sharks.
'We cannot get the loan shark to cancel the debt, but we can discuss with them (the loan sharks) how the debtor can repay the amount.'
Since 2005, penalties under the Moneylenders Act have been enhanced.
Assets of convicted loan sharks can now be confiscated. The passports of loan sharks can be cancelled and they also face a 10-year travel ban to prevent them from running syndicates from outside Singapore.
Loan sharks can also be detained under the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act. Since April this year, persons who apply to update their home address in their NRICs are required to furnish proof that they are staying at that address to minimise the likelihood of borrowers giving false addresses to loan sharks.
Probably the 40thousands dollars debt is part of the problem, when a person feels so tired, because of the daily toil to make ends meet, have to take care of the husband/wife, his and her parents, the children, debts etc. Sometimes they just want to end it all. Very sad indeed. My condolences to the family.
