Borrowing from loansharks may become an offence

[jdelpiero]

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans who borrow from loansharks have been put on notice and the Home Affairs Ministry (MHA) is considering making such acts an offence in the country.

Speaking at the annual Police Workplan seminar on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng said unlicensed moneylending harassment cases have almost doubled from 2,066 to 3,993.

To counter this rise, the police have installed more CCTVs at harassment—prone sites like lift landings in housing estates.

"From the arrests made, we know that many borrowers eventually join the loanshark criminal organisation as runners to carry out harassment and vandalism. We, therefore, need to stem the problem decisively," said Mr Wong.

Community leaders welcomed the move as neighbours of those who borrow from loansharks end up being harassed as well.

Teo Ho Pin, GPC chair for law and home affairs & MP for Bukit Panjang, said: "The town councils have also been doing a lot of goodwill painting and repair work to all the common property damaged by the loansharks and their assistants. So we need to come out with a holistic approach to resolve this problem."

One such approach is for the police to tap on new technologies to reach out to the community.

After its success with YouTube, the police force is now on Facebook. Since January this year, it has garnered some 3,600 fans on the social networking website.

On top of that, another 200 frontline posts will be created at the neighbourhood police centres to help ease the workload of police officers, who will also be acquiring new skills to deal with different terrorist scenarios.

A new programme has been launched to train the Police Tactical Team troops in close quarter combat skills and ballistic shield skills to neutralise a rampaging gunman.


— CNA/so

[jdelpiero]

strange.. i always thought loansharking was illegal.

[Leslie]

strange.. i always thought loansharking was illegal.
Yes. But that's supply-side illegality - they're evidently now looking into making it an offence to borrow from loansharks i.e. squeeze the demand side.

[amos_infinitus]

in this case u cant report police next time lol..loan sharks wun b scared if u threaten to call e police..

[des_yeo03]

in this case u cant report police next time lol..loan sharks wun b scared if u threaten to call e police..

Good point brought up....:laugh: Really got to think twice before you really borrow from loansharks next time loh....Unless you got the "perish together" mentality....:laugh:

[Leslie]

in this case u cant report police next time lol..loan sharks wun b scared if u threaten to call e police..
It also means that someone who is not the borrower or loanshark (for e.g. a person who suffers as a result of his neighbour borrowing from loansharks) can make a police report - and depending on how far the police are minded to investigate, both the borrower and the loanshark could be caught.

So, even if you take the risk of borrowing from a loanshark and then later refuse to incriminate yourself by not making a police report when things turn ugly, you are not necessarily 100% safe.

[add] Anyway, even now also you threaten to report police the loansharks also not scared =))

[Anomaly]

The point is to make them not to borrow from loansharks.

Those loansharks are too much really. The other time the guy on the storey above me borrow from loansharks and the loansharks splash paint on all the neighbours door(including mine). Left, right, up and down. (They even choose different colours!) Thats really dumb even for loansharks. (There must be at least half a dozen police reports made from the 1 incident)

[cyc]

The point is to make them not to borrow from loansharks.

Those loansharks are too much really. The other time the guy on the storey above me borrow from loansharks and the loansharks splash paint on all the neighbours door(including mine). Left, right, up and down. (They even choose different colours!) Thats really dumb even for loansharks. (There must be at least half a dozen police reports made from the 1 incident)

of coz different colours lah... randomly grab a few tins from the shop...

PS: geez, always thot that "loanshark" is a myth

[Leslie]

Well, if this does make it into law, we'll have to see just how much of a deterrent it proves to be.

I mean, I dunno, I would have thought that the thought of having to pay an exorbitant interest rate, and run the risk of being harassed/beaten up would already be enough to put less than desperate people off. And if I'm desperate already, would I really be scared of the law? Later die better than now die right?

Effectiveness also depends on how bothered the police are to investigate persons who have allegedly borrowed from loansharks (especially those who have moved out from the premises).