Effects of Harsher Penalties for Unlicensed Moneylending

Mr Speaker, for the six-month period of January to June 2012, there were 5,228 reported cases of unlicensed moneylending and related harassment. This represents a drop of 21% compared to the 6,642 cases reported in the same period in 2011. In contrast, the number of persons arrested rose by 22% to 1,033 between the same two six-month periods. This overall improvement in the situation continues the trend which commenced two years ago.

This improvement can be attributed to several factors. The widely publicised increased penalties under the law have had a deterrent effect. The Police have also stepped-up enforcement and preventive education efforts, as well as engagement with community partners.

However, the fight against unlicensed moneylending is far from over. Loansharks are becoming more sophisticated and resorting to new methods to lure unsuspecting victims. This includes advertising their services via e-mail and SMSes, as highlighted by Er Dr Lee. Licensed moneylenders are not permitted to advertise their services through such means. We urge the public to be vigilant and report such instances to the Police for investigation. Regardless of the mode of operation, Police will act to disrupt and apprehend these loanshark syndicates.

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The suggestion to make borrowing from loansharks an offence has been debated on several occasions in this House. My Ministry has no plans, at this juncture, to criminalise borrowing. Rather, our focus is on preventive education, enforcement and community engagement to tackle the issue. Given the improvement in the situation, we will press on with these measures while closely monitoring their effectiveness before assessing the need, if any, for tougher measures.

Mr Speaker, it is encouraging that while there has been a dip in the number of cases, there has also been an increase in enforcement, reflecting the 22% enforcement against harassment and the rise of 22%. Drawing from that, I have two supplementary questions for the Minister. The first is, in relation to upstream, how do the measures move upstream to address, challenge and attack the puppeteers of the runners, who are being enforced against? Second and apart from upstream, where the cross-jurisdictional nature of the offence, the extra-territoriality of the offence, how do the measures presently go upstream beyond our borders to challenge these mechanisms overseas?

Mr Speaker, I believe both questions posed by the Member pertain to the same point, which is how do the Police track the people who are behind the syndicates, and not just the runners who are just in the frontline. This is where there is the challenging task, and one that requires persistence and perseverance on the part of law enforcement agencies, specifically our Police operational divisions. Through the apprehension of some of these harassers who are caught, we are able to get some intelligence which will then lead into action taken against those who are upstream, and getting more data. The Police have also been able to disrupt the activities of some syndicates at the core. The issue of extra-territoriality and jurisdiction does arise, because there are some syndicates where some of the people behind them are beyond our borders. This is where cooperation with the law enforcement agencies in other countries is relevant. Where we are able to prove that someone has, indeed, contravened our laws, then, the close cooperation that we have with some of our neighbouring countries' enforcement agencies will help in their interdiction and, eventually, bringing them back to our shores to bring them to task.

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Mr Speaker, Sir, I have a resident who has been harassed by loansharks for the last 10 years because his neighbour borrows repeatedly from these loansharks. I would like to ask the Minister why is the Ministry reluctant to make borrowing from loansharks an offence. The Minister also mentioned education. I would like to ask what kind of education is applicable for cases like these, and does the Minister think education is effective?

Sir, I appreciate the Member's passion in representing her constituent's plight. We have discussed this matter and debated it quite a bit in this House. Let me just bring it back to the focal point, which is that, first of all, the opinion on this matter is divided, not least because the circumstances in which different borrowers find themselves in vary. So, it would be difficult to use a common approach to apply to all, as in the case of criminalising borrowing from the loansharks.

Secondly, the Member asked specifically about education. We are referring to making people aware of the prevalence of loanshark activities, that they should be deterred from taking up such facilities because of the quite dire consequences that can follow through, and where they can turn to for help. This is the kind of information that needs to go out extensively. With respect to those who may have borrowed from laonsharks, the additional things that we have done so far, in particular, with the recent set of amendments to the law, has been to make it an offence if they are slow in reporting a change of their address to the ICA. They have to do so within a period of 28 days, and if they do not, they are liable to quite stiff punishments. Secondly, if they give wrong information because they want to implicate somebody else rather than themselves in the course of borrowing from illegal moneylenders, that is also an offence, and they can be imprisoned for up to a year. So, there are those kinds of provisions in place.

As I have said in my earlier reply, we are monitoring the situation. So far, the trend has been downwards and it has been strongly downwards – reduced by 20%. It has been a similar order of magnitude in the previous two years. The Police are getting a handle on it. We have not ruled out other options, but we want to monitor the efficacy of the totality of the measures we have in place today, and see how they improve the situation before deciding whether we need any further, perhaps more severe, measures.

May I ask the Minister this: in line with the CCTV rollout and that policy for the Ministry of Home Affairs, whether priority could be given for hotspot loanshark areas to be installed with CCTVs in the common access areas, for example, lifts and staircases?

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Mr Speaker, I thank the Member for his suggestion. I want to assure him and the rest of the House that, indeed, that is the focus of the Police. We have a nationwide CCTV rollout plan. Within that, there is a certain level of prioritisation by geography, and within these geographies, specific areas. Some of that allocation by the Police will be on the basis of where they think the needs are greatest. It may not just be due to an UML type of problem. It may be due to other considerations but the Police will make an operational assessment in deciding where those deployments should be made. That is not the only criterion. There are other factors that are at play as well.

Beyond that, even before we had this nationwide CCTV rollout, there were some tactical deployments that the Police were already doing, and that will continue to be the case in terms of CCTV.

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