A pregnant housewife who was charged with assisting an unlicensed moneylender was issued a police warning in court on Monday.
Syafinah Hasnah Rathi, 25, was granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal and spared a jail sentence, The Straits Times reported.
She had allowed a loanshark to use her ATM card and bank account, and could have been fined between $30,000 and $300,000, and jailed up to four years for the offence.
The prosecutor did not say in court why Syafinah was given a warning.
In an interview with the newspaper, however, Syafinah said she believed it was because of her pregnancy. She is nine months' pregnant and due any time now.
Relating her story, Syafinah said her former husband made her borrow $2,000 from a loanshark. He took more than half of the sum, while she used the rest on household expenses, The Straits Times said.
As they were unable to pay off the debt, she had to agree to the loanshark's demands. They ran into financial difficulties as her former husband was unable to get a job due to his previous drug convictions.
Syafinah has three children - a son, aged five, with her former husband, and two more boys, aged two-and-a-half and one-and-a-half, with her boyfriend.
They intend to wed next month after her divorce proceedings are settled, The Straits Times reported.
http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Crime/Story/A1Story20120430-343092.html
