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Four nabbed for suspected loanshark activities
Posted: 21 March 2012 1716 hrs
SINGAPORE: Police have arrested four men, aged between 19 and 45, for suspected involvement in loansharking activities.
In the first case, officers from Jurong Police Division arrested three men between Monday and Tuesday.
Preliminary investigations indicated that the suspects are debtors.
They are believed to have opened bank accounts and given away their Automated Teller Machine cards and Personal Identification Numbers to loansharks to facilitate their businesses.
In the second case on Tuesday at about 4.25pm, officers from Jurong Police Division spotted a man behaving suspiciously in the vicinity of Woodlands Street 82.
They seized loanshark-related paraphernalia including two markers, a handphone and five pieces of notes containing debtors' records found in his possession.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the suspect is a debtor-turned-harasser.
He is believed to be responsible for several cases of loanshark harassment in Telok Blangah, Woodlands, Ang Mo Kio, Choa Chu Kang, Jurong East and Jurong West housing estates.
Investigations against the three suspects in the first case are ongoing.
The suspect in the second case will be charged in Court on Thursday.
First-time offenders found guilty of assisting in the carrying on of the business of an unlicensed moneylender, may be fined a minimum of S$30,000, be jailed for a maximum of four years and shall also be liable to be caned a maximum of six strokes.
First-time offenders found guilty of loanshark harassment shall be fined a minimum of S$5,000 with mandatory imprisonment of up to five years and mandatory caning of up to six strokes.
- CNA/cc
