Ong Eng Chee is probably a one-in-a-million loanshark runner.
So considerate was he during his debtor-harassment duties that he would dilute paint with turpentine so that it would be easier to clean.
Ong would also use non-permanent marker pens to scrawl threatening words on walls outside the apartments of debtors.
When he had to set fire outside homes, he always made sure he stayed around so that the fires don’t cause too much damage, The Straits Times newspaper reported.
Once, Ong was so thoughtful that he even moved a debtor’s shoe rack to make sure it wasn’t torched.
For his kind actions, the High Court reduced Ong’s seven-year jail term to five years on Thursday (24 May). A $30,000 fine and 24 strokes of the cane in his sentence remained.
“It seems to me that the appellant was a family man who never wanted to fall foul of the law,” Appeals judge Chao Hick Tin wrote in a judgment.
Justice Chao also noted that Ong was an honest man and got involved with loan sharks only because he was a guarantor for a friend who had borrowed money from illegal moneylenders.
The friend later fled Singapore and Ong, who used to work in sales for high-end fashion retailer Club 21, started helping the loan shark after he could not repay the loan.
He was paid $70 to splash paint and $300 to set fires to intimidate debtors.
After his arrest, Ong demonstrated his remorse by confessing to the charges against him which led the police to close previously opened cases.
The father of two added that he confessed because he wanted to help victims have closure, the newspaper reported.
However, despite Ong’s circumstances, Justice Chao highlighted the severity of loan shark harassment.
“In the interests of the public and as a general deterrence, he should of course be punished severely, but he should not be crushed,” the judge said.
Justice Chao said there is a difference between two groups of people who get involved with loan sharks.
Some borrow out of desperate financial need brought about by events not within their control, he said.
Others, like gamblers and youth harassers lured by the easy money, are less deserving of sympathy, the judge added.
