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Vultan
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Jan 26, 2011
Illegal moneylending dips 10% in 2010
By Kimberly Spykerman
Loansharks hiring foreign thugs
SINGAPORE - MORE foreigners - especially from Taiwan and Vietnam - were arrested for being part of the activities of illegal moneylending syndicates, police said on Wednesday.
These loansharks have resorted to recruiting foreign 'runners' in the hope that they can avoid detection and arrest by the authorities because they enter on short-term social visit passes and have no fixed addresses.
Police said 50 foreigners working for illegal money lenders were arrested in 2010, more than double the 22 people nabbed the year before. Some of the most notable cases involved loanshark runners recruited from Taiwan and Vietnam, they said.
'These foreign loanshark runners are often recruited overseas, are usually in Singapore for a short period of time and may not have a fixed place to abode,' police said at their annual briefing on the local crime situation.
Loanshark runners usually harass delinquent borrowers by splashing paint on their homes and publicly shaming them by writing their name, home address and telephone number on the walls of highrise housing blocs.
In extreme cases they throw human or animal faeces, urine or kerosene on a defaulting borrower's doorstep or letterbox. They may also physically threaten the borrower.
Assistant police commissioner Hoong Wee Teck, director of the Criminal Investigation Department, said loanshark syndicates 'are mistaken if they think they can circumvent the law by bringing in foreign nationals to commit crime on their behalf.' -- AFP
One notable improvement was in unlicensed moneylending. In this area, there was a 10 per cent decrease of cases with more people arrested. -- PHOTO: NP
THE overall crime situation for 2010 decreased by 0.6 per cent from 33,186 cases to 32,986.
One notable improvement was in unlicensed moneylending, the Singapore Police Force revealed in a press conference about the Annual Crime Situation for 2010 on Wednesday.
In this area, there was a 10 per cent decrease of cases with more people arrested.
But more foreigners - especially from Taiwan and Vietnam - were also arrested for such offences. There were 22 such people in 2009, compared to 50 in 2010.
