Police's Role in Enforcement against Timeshare Companies

The Second Minister for Home Affairs (Mr S Iswaran)(for the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs): Mdm Speaker, when the Police receive any report or complaint, they first assess whether a criminal offence has been committed. Under the Criminal Procedure Code, the Police are empowered to initiate investigations only into suspected criminal offences.

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The number of Police reports lodged against timeshare companies averaged 110 per year over the last five years. The Police have initiated investigations into about half of these reported cases. This has resulted in investigations into 11 groups of timeshare companies in the past five years. In one of the cases that is still in Court, the accused has been charged with 72 counts of cheating under section 420 of the Penal Code.

The Police take a serious view of persons or companies misleading or deceiving unsuspecting consumers into making sham purchases. However, gathering evidence is challenging and can take a long time as many errant timeshare companies are incorporated overseas. Masterminds may also use false names to run the companies.

The Police will continue to work with the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) and media partners to alert the general public and potential consumers of any emerging timeshare scams. The regulations of the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act (CPFTA) that protect consumers against errant timeshare companies were revised earlier this year to provide consumers with greater protection and flexibility and encourage timeshare companies to review their products and services. Under CPFTA, CASE may obtain injunction orders against errant traders for unfair practices such as misleading claims and pressure selling.

On the consumers' part, they must remain vigilant and do their due diligence before signing any contract with timeshare companies. Consumers should check for information on their obligations and their rights to cancel the contract, which timeshare companies are required to provide before any contract is signed. Attention should also be paid to the fine print and hidden costs so that an informed decision can be made. In cases involving breaches of contract conditions, aggrieved consumers will need to seek recourse through civil means.

I thank the Second Minister for his response. The Second Minister mentioned that half of the average of 110 reported cases per year were deemed to be criminal offences and at least investigated as such. May I enquire of the Minister about the other half: was it the Police's view that no dishonesty was involved on the part of the timeshare providers? Why I ask this question, Madam, is because in my constituency, I have had situations where the elderly have been cheated, have been misrepresented to, and from what I can see of the evidence, there was dishonesty. However, the Police took the view that that ought to have been a civil recourse case. My question really is: if there is dishonesty and dishonesty is represented, and a consumer acts on that

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dishonesty mistakenly, would that be rightfully categorised as a cheating offence?

Madam, I thank the good Member for his question. I want to stress that, essentially, the process is such that when a complaint is received, the Police have to conduct inquiries to first ascertain whether there is sufficient basis to infer that an offence is potentially disclosed, before they then proceed into detailed investigations. So, for the kind of circumstances that the Member has described, it really turns on the specifics of individual cases, the Police's inquiries, and the assessment arising from those inquiries.

As I have mentioned earlier, some of the challenges here also lie in the fact that the nature of these activities is such that it is not easy to obtain all the information. So, whilst an individual may feel that he has been misled, proving that, as the Member would well appreciate, can be challenging.

Having said that, if the Member has particular points to raise regarding specific cases, I think he can surface them and we can ask the Police to look at them again. But, in general, that is the process, and then we have also strengthened the legislation under the consumer protection component. We have provided for recourse for specific bodies to take up injunctions where there is evidence as well.

A supplementary question. Would the Second Minister encourage the Police to red-flag cases where elderly victims are concerned and large amounts of money have actually been released to timeshare companies? Would the combination of those two facts give rise to special considerations where investigation is concerned?

Mdm Speaker, I am not sure what the Member means by "red-flagging". If by that he means making it generally well-known and raising public awareness that there are cases such as these, then that is where the overall public education effort comes in, which the Police undertake together with the CASE and others. I think this is a very important component.

Where an offence is disclosed and if it pertains to the elderly or otherwise, I think those sorts of cases will also have to be publicised as part of the larger education effort.

But we have to bear in mind that we have to be fair to the other side of the equation, which is the companies as well. Because until an offence is, in fact, disclosed and proven, we also have to be careful in the way we go about the enforcement activities. That is the balance

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that should be struck. But I take the point of the Member on the whole issue of raising awareness and making sure that, for vulnerable consumers in particular, we do our best to alert them to the possible risks of undertaking such transactions.