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SINGAPORE: For nearly two years, a Singaporean man ran an illegal money lending business with 19 foreign domestic workers as clients, earning between S $ 1,000 and S $ 1,500 per month.
He would meet them in person on Sundays on Orchard Road, at malls like Lucky Plaza, Takashimaya, and ION Orchard, issuing cash loans between S $ 300 and S $ 500.
Tan Boon Teck, 61, was sentenced on Wednesday (November 25) to two years and six weeks in jail and a fine of Singapore $ 240,000. If he cannot pay the fine, he will be jailed for another 16 weeks.
Tan pleaded guilty to eight charges related to S $ 3,900 of illegal loans under the Lenders Act, with another 10 charges taken into consideration.
READ: Loans, Brokerage, Loans: Inside the Web of Maids and Lenders
The court heard that he took over the illegal business of a Filipino acquaintance in July 2017, before asking his girlfriend, the Filipino maid, for help.
His girlfriend, Shirley Cansino Eustaquio, helped pass loans to debtors and collect repayments and was not paid for her role. She was given eight weeks in jail and a fine of S $ 60,000 last year and was repatriated to the Philippines.
Tan would issue the cash loans in person, staying on Orchard Road on Sundays to make new loans to new borrowers or collect loan repayments from existing ones.
His debtors knew him as “uncle”, “Kuya” or “Mr. Bean”, and he obtained photocopies of their passports, work permits and contact details.
He charged an interest rate of 20 percent per month and then changed the terms of his loan so that the loan repayments and interest were in monthly installments and were subject to a late payment fee.
It dealt with at least 10 debtors, all of them Filipino domestic workers, and mainly operated on Orchard Road where they frequented, Deputy Prosecutor Pavithra Ramkumar said.
He did not have a money lending license and knew it was illegal, but he operated his business for almost two years between July 2017 and May 2019.
Some of the debtors borrowed from Tan because they needed money for their families, including a woman who had to help pay for her granddaughter’s medical expenses. She paid him S $ 1,500 in total after asking for a loan of S $ 500.
Another maid accepted four loans from Tan for a total of S $ 1,900, as she supported five people on a monthly salary of S $ 700.
He was arrested on May 12 last year after his Bedok apartment was raided. The police confiscated S $ 580 in cash, a phone and a stack of papers containing Tan’s debtor records.
READ: Maids could turn to loan sharks if employers’ consent was required to borrow money from licensed lenders: MOM
MASTERMIND TARGETING VULNERABLE WORKERS: FISCAL
The prosecutor said Tan was the mastermind of the well-organized business and scolded and vulgarized debtors who could not pay.
He asked for 30 months in jail and a fine of S $ 240,000, saying that Tan was targeting a vulnerable class of workers: maids who earned monthly salaries of S $ 600 to S $ 800.
His 20 percent interest rate was “exorbitant” and five times the maximum interest rate of 4 percent per month prescribed in the 2009 Lenders Rules.
“Such interest would have been exorbitant when compared to the salaries of its debtors,” the prosecutor said.
Tan’s lawyer said the maids should have gone to banks for loans, and said Tan is the only caregiver for his wheelchair-bound mother. He added that it was “a bit of an exaggeration” to say that it was a syndicated operation.
District Judge Marvin Bay said there is a need for the court to control illegal lending, which is “an undoubtedly lucrative activity in which criminals expect to make huge profits with relatively modest cash outlays.”
He noted that Tan disbursed loans to foreign domestic workers, who are a vulnerable class of people with limited means of obtaining credit and susceptible to exploitation.
For each count of conducting an illegal money-lending business, Tan could have been jailed for up to four years and fined between S $ 30,000 and S $ 300,000 per charge.
