Police have arrested three youths, comprising two females aged 17 and 18 years old and a male aged 19 years old, who are believed to be involved in a series of loanshark harassment cases islandwide.

On 24 July 2010 , Police were notified that loanshark-graffiti had been found at the staircase landing in the vicinity of Yishun Street 72. Following the report, officers from Ang Mo Kio Police Division carried out extensive ground enquiries and managed to establish the identity of a suspect. On 10 August 2010 at about 7.00 pm , the officers arrested an 18-year-old female suspect in the vicinity of Ang Mo Kio Avenue 9 in connection to the case. Following her arrest, another female accomplice was located and arrested in the vicinity of Redhill Lane about an hour later. Pursuing every possible lead, the officers arrested the third suspect on 11 August 2010 at about 3.05 am in the vicinity of Bishan Central. Following the arrests of the three suspects, loanshark-related paraphernalia such as handphones believed to contained debtors' records, stacks of bank transaction slips, and ATM cards which were found in their possession were seized as case exhibits. Preliminary investigation revealed that the trio are working for several loansharks and had carried out loanshark harassments islandwide such as scrawling loanshark-related graffiti on walls and splashing paint on debtors' units. The trio was also believed to have assisted the loansharks in their businesses by carrying out bank transfers, verifying debtors' identity cards and collecting debt repayments.

All three suspects will be charged in Court on 12 August 2010 for offences under the Moneylenders Act (Revised Edition 2010).

Offenders who had acted on behalf of an unlicensed moneylender, commit or attempt to commit any acts of harassment shall be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years, fine not less than $5,000/- and not more than $50,000/- and shall also be liable to be caned not more than 6 strokes. First-time offenders found guilty of assisting in the carrying on of the business of an unlicensed moneylender, may be fined not less than $30,000/- and not more than $300,000/-, be imprisoned for a term not exceeding 4 years and shall also be liable to be punished with caning with not more than 6 strokes.

Commander of Ang Mo Kio Police Division HQ, DAC Hsu Sin Yun, commended his officers for their good investigative follow-up and perseverance in clamping down on loansharking activities.