Man Pretends To Harass Debtors & Earned $340 From Loan Shark, Gets Jailed For Cheating
When one thinks of the consequences of being in debt to loan sharks, the imagery of harassment with red paint and big padlocks usually jumps to mind.
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One 34-year-old man in Singapore was hired by a loan shark to do just that.
However, he had only pretended to complete the job, and he had received cash in return.
On Wednesday (6 Jan), he pleaded guilty to one count of cheating, and was sentenced to 11 days’ jail.
Man hired by loan shark to lock up doors & leave warning note
According to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), the court heard that the man, Muhammad Khairul Ismail, saw a job advertisement put up by a loan shark named Lucas and contacted him.
The job entailed locking up doors of Lucas’ debtors, leaving them a warning note, and recording a footage of it.
Khairul was promised a sum of $100 to $120 upon the completion of each job. All he needed to do was to send Lucas the videos to verify that the job was completed.
Put up an act to show job was completed
However, instead of leaving the doors locked, Khairul would remove the locks after taking the video, reports TODAY Online.
He would also paste the warning notes on the locks instead of the gate to prevent damaging the debtors’ property.
Lucas was only made aware of this when his debtors alerted the police.
Earned around $340 over 3 incidents
On 10 Dec, Lucas messaged Khairul with the job details. Khairul proceeded to the debtors’ house with an intended plan to cheat Lucas.
CNA reported that Khairul had no intentions of harassing the debtors, and even went out of his way to paste the warning note on the locks to prevent damaging the debtor’s gate.
After recording a video of him locking the debtor’s door with 2 bicycle locks, he removed them and promptly left.
The court heard that Khairul had earned about $340 over 3 cheating incidents.
Khairul’s actions were exposed when Lucas had sent the exact same recordings to his debtors. CNA states that the police were alerted.
Sentenced to 11 days’ jail
The Deputy Public Prosecutor Krystal Chiang stated that the victim of this case was “not a typical innocent member of the public”. However, this does not absolve Khairul from his wrongdoings either.
And, letting him go unpunished would lead to a “slippery slope”, according to CNA.
The prosecutor also mentioned that while Khairul did unlock the gates, he did not have any reason to be there in the first place.
In addition, Khairul was the one who reached out to Lucas on 3 occasions, earning $340 through dishonest means.
Khairul pled guilty to one count of cheating. He was sentenced to 11 days in jail.
The penalty for cheating could have been up to 10 years in jail, fined, or both.
Netizens debate if loan shark should be charged as well
This Facebook user opined that the loan shark should have been charged with a heftier sentence too.
Another commented – likely in jest – that all loan sharks should hereby be protected by the law against losses.
This Facebook user made a joke about it with the current debate on TraceTogether data.
Cheating isn’t the right way to earn quick bucks
From the man’s actions, it looks like it was never his intention to harass debtors. Perhaps he was simply in need of quick cash.
Unfortunately, what he did was counted as dishonest as he had let his boss believe that the job was completed. He was even paid for each occasion.
Cheating isn’t right, but associating with a loan shark isn’t exactly the legal way to earn quick bucks too.
We hope Khairul will learn from his actions in the future.
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Featured image adapted from Unsplash and DBS.
