Friday, April 21, 2006

Loan sharks' new tactic: Threaten alleged debtor's

 
WHEN freelance tour guide Anna Sim (right), 48, opened her mailbox at 10.30pm last Monday she found an innocent-looking white envelope with a Singapore postmark.
 
Click to see larger image
--Pics/CHOO CHWEE HUA
Its contents, though, were far from innocent.
When she opened the envelope - which had only her address on it and not her name - Ms Sim found what was clearly a loan shark's note demanding payment.
Not from her though, but from a neighbour.
The note (right), in broken English, said:
'Neighbour who receive this letter HOUSE will be locked IF he no pay I (LOCK, PAINT) YOUR HOUSE.'
The envelope also contained five hell notes, a type of paper money burnt for the dead, especially during the Chinese seventh month.
 
This could be the first time loan sharks have harassed the neighbours of an alleged debtor .
 
And many residents in Block 314, Tampines Street 33, have got the letter.
Of the 25 units in the 40-unit block that The New Paper visited, residents in 15 said they had received the same kind of letter.
 
UPSET RESIDENTS
Ms Sim, who has lived there for 12 years, said: 'I'll call the police. This is very threatening.
 
Click to see larger image
'If we're locked in, how can my children go to school? And my husband and I won't be able to go to work.'
Ms Sim said her next-door neighbour had told her that she too had received a similar letter the day before.
'She told me that the letter came in a nice white envelope with a nice stamp, but no names were typed on the envelope, although her address was on it.
'She threw the letter away as she thought the loan sharks got the wrong person.
 
'This has nothing to do with us.
'The loan sharks should go after the person who owes them money. Harassing us won't settle the debt.'
 
Mr Raymond Chen, 45, general manager in a marine offshore company, who got the envelope on Monday, was so shocked that he threw the notes away at once and called the police.
 
Speaking to The New Paper outside his flat, he said: 'I've lived here for seven years and this is the first time I've been threatened.
 
'I hope the police will step up patrols in this area.
 
'There was no name or address on the envelope.
 
UNLOCKED MAILBOX
'I believe the loan shark inserted the letter into my mailbox because I leave the slotting flap unlocked.
 
'Now, I'll lock up the slotting flap.
 
'It's unfair that we're targeted simply for living near the person who borrowed money.'
 
The New Paper also saw scribblings of the address and name of a man, together with the words O$P$ (owe money, pay money), on the walls around the staircase.
 
Black paint was also splashed on the gate and door of one flat on the third storey.
 
Nobody answered the door bell at that unit. It seemed unoccupied as there were flyers stuck on the gate.
 
The resident next door, a 23-year-old customer service officer who gave his name as Mr Fazli, told The New Paper that he called the police two weeks ago, after loan sharks burnt his neighbour's door knob.
 
When showed the note that his other neighbours had received, Mr Fazli, who has lived there with his parents and three siblings for two years, said he had not received such a letter.
 
'We probably didn't get the letter as we lock the slotting flap. We did so because we don't like to receive junk mail.'
 
Mr Fazli said the loan sharks appeared three weeks ago, throwing some red paint on an exterior wall.
 
He recalled that their first visit came a day after the family next door had moved out.
 
He said the town council had repainted the walls twice, only for them to be defaced again.
 
'The family came back only once to collect some things and to remove the red paint.
 
'But last week, the loan sharks splashed the black paint on the door and nobody has done anything since then.'
 
Police spokesman Mohamed Razif confirmed that the police have received several calls from residents in the block about being harassed by loan sharks.
He added that they are investigating and stepping up patrols in the area.
 
HOME Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng said in May last year that tougher action would be taken against loan sharks.
 
Mr Wong said the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) would set up two new units. One would focus on casinos and keeping them crime-free. The second would target loan sharks as they tend to be linked to gambling.
 
Mr Wong told Parliament in April last year that mandatory minimum sentences could be introduced for illegal money-lending and harassment.
 
And in November, the Moneylenders' Act was beefed up to include mandatory caning for convicted loan sharks. Loan sharks who vandalise public property could already be caned under the Vandalism Act.
 
On 9 Mar, Tan Tze Wee, 32, became the first loan shark to be caned under the beefed-up Act.
 
He had been arrested on 8 Feb in the Sembawang Drive neighbourhood.
At that time, he was with another loan shark, Benjamin Lim Kuan Seng, 30, and they had just scribbled the usual message on the walls of an alleged debtor's staircase landing in Block 478.
 
Tan was sentenced to 21 months in jail and 10 strokes of the cane.
On 29 Mar, Lim was sentenced to 21 months in jail and eight strokes of the cane.

New Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Call regular phones from your PC and save big.

// posted by Shajahan @ 11:36 AM


<< Home