Illegal Moneylending Cases

Mr Ang Wei Neng asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs for the past five years (a) what is number of complaints related to moneylending SMS received by the Police; (b) what is number of illegal moneylending cases investigated by the Police that are linked to legal moneylenders; and (c) how many illegal moneylending cases are solved.

The Police have continued to enforce strongly against loan-sharking and related illegal activities. Between 2009 and 2013, there has been a two-fold increase in arrests for unlicensed moneylending (UML) and UML-related harassment offences, from 965 persons in 2009 to 1,953 persons in 2013. Over the same period, the number of reported UML-related cases fell by 55.5% from 18,649 cases in 2009 to 8,306 cases in 2013. These improvements are also attributable to the strong support given to the Police by the community.

However, loan sharks are becoming more sophisticated and resorting to new methods to lure unsuspecting victims, such as masquerading as licensed moneylenders. This includes advertising their services via e-mail blasts and SMSes, as Mr Ang has highlighted. Licensed moneylenders are not permitted to advertise their services through such means.

While the Police and the Registry of Moneylenders (ROM) do not track the number of complaints relating to SMS advertisements sent by unlicensed moneylenders, both agencies will take immediate action once such information is received. For instance, the Police work with ROM and mobile service providers to terminate the telephone lines that are used by UML to send these advertisements. At its end, ROM has administered warnings to two licensed moneylenders for advertising through SMS. Their moneylending licences were also suspended and part of their security deposits was forfeited.

There were two cases where a licensed moneylender was found to be involved in UML activities. The accused persons have been taken to task under the Moneylenders Act. In one of the cases, a licensed moneylender had assisted in his friend's UML business as a runner. He was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment and fined $210,000. ROM also revoked his moneylending licence and forfeited his security deposit in full.

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