3 arrested for assisting loansharks

SINGAPORE - Three people were arrested in two separate cases of loansharking activities.

In the first case a couple, husband and wife, 46 and 38 respectively, were questioned by patrolling policemen after being spottedbehaving strangely in Senkang Central on July 27, at about 4.40am.

They then admitted to having opened bank accounts for loansharks to facilitate their businesses and were placed under arrest.

In the second case, a 53-year-old man was arrested after a member of the public spotted him behaving suspiciously along the corridor of his block along Yishun Ring Road.

The police officers who arrived on the scene questioned the suspicious behaving man and found out that he was debtor-turned-runner. He assisted a loanshark by checking on borrowers' units for signs of harassment and also in locating borrowers on behalf of the loanshark.

If found guilty of of assisting in the carrying on of the business of an unlicensed moneylender, first-time offenders can be fined between $30,000 and $300,000, jailed up to 4 years and may receive up to 6 strokes of the cane.