Licensed moneylender fined S$31,000
By Shaffiq Alkhatib | Posted: 05 September 2011 1622 hrs
A licensed moneylender flouting rules introduced in 2008 to weed out abuses in the industry was fined $31,000 on Monday by a district court. Liew Yoon Kwai, 53, a director of Car City Leasing, is the first errant moneylender to be sentenced. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
SINGAPORE: A director of automobile company, City Car Leasing, has become the first licensed moneylender to be sentenced in court for breaching regulations laid down by the Registry of Moneylenders.
Fifty-three-year-old Liew Yoon Kwai was fined S$31,000 after pleading guilty last month to five of the 15 charges against him.
Ten other charges were taken into consideration.
Among his offences, Liew had given false information to the Registrar of Moneylenders in October 2010.
His company granted a loan of S$20,000 to two joint borrowers in July that year.
But a statement which Liew later submitted to the Registrar stated that only one had taken the loan.
Although this debtor was then unemployed, Liew had incorrectly stated that his client was earning S$24,000 annually.
The court heard that the statement he submitted to the Registrar had to contain every moneylending transaction between July and September 2010.
Liew had also committed another offence when he granted the loan to the debtor even though he was not earning any income.
Defence counsel Ravinderpal Singh told the court that his client is remorseful and had not verified the information the applicants had given him.
Mr Singh highlighted that Liew's actions were "more of a failure" to ensure accuracy as opposed to a deliberate act of giving false information.
The lawyer added that Liew had taken whatever information applicants had given him as accurate.
For giving false information, Liew could have been jailed up to a year, fined a maximum of S$30,000, or both.
For his four other offences, he could have been jailed up to S$10,000 for each charge.
- CNA/cc
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