In the news...

In case you didn't manage to read this in the news, I just want to highlight how some st*pid youths get exploited to do this for illegal lenders, and all for just a meagre sum of money!!!

This amount you can jolly well earn, in the span of an hour or less, when you graduate and get a decent job in an office next time. And you definitely do not run the risk of getting caught and being thrown behind bars!!!

I only pity them, because they may not have proper guidance and concern from individuals to bring them back to the "correct side". Otherwise, they deserve every ounce of punishment being inflicted upon them.

July 6, 2009
Loan shark runners are getting younger
Some seduced into making an easy buck, others paying off their debts
By Teh Joo Lin & Ben Nadarajan

IF THE 'O$P$' scrawls on the walls look more childish nowadays, it may be because they are the handiwork of loan shark runners barely out of their teens.

Those caught harassing debtors to pay up seem to be getting younger, with at least one as young as 12.

Police nabbed 63 youth last year for doing the dirty work for loan sharks when debtors default on repayment. In 2007, 59 youth were arrested.

Police did not release figures for this year, but The Straits Times did its own count based on police releases. Of 124 loan sharks and runners arrested, 31 - or one in four - were aged 19 and below. The youngest was a 12-year-old boy caught last month as part of a group of five youth who were harassing debtors in Bedok and Ang Mo Kio.

Rather surprisingly, there were seven girls among the young people arrested.

In May, four girls aged 15 and 16 were caught in the act with the help of a Hougang resident. Two of them were spotted at a corridor armed with a blue marker and bags of paint. The girls fled but were pursued by the resident and his father, who caught one of them at the void deck of a nearby block. The other three were later arrested by the police.

The cases have led the police to warn youngsters against being made used of by loan sharks.

A police spokesman said many young people were referred by friends to work for these syndicates for a quick buck.

Youth recruitment reflects the changing modus operandi of loan shark syndicates, according to those familiar with their operations.

To reduce the risk of getting busted, syndicate members are staying behind the scenes, preferring to hire runners to harass debtors for small fees.

Those taken on board have included debtors unable to pay off their loans, foreign workers and youth who know too little to yield any leads about the masterminds if they are nabbed.

A loan shark said he used youth because they are more daring. Harassment is a ready outlet for them to vent their teenage angst and pent-up frustrations.

But since they can get out of hand, these youngsters are often 'teamed' with older runners who guide them along, he added.

Counsellors such as Ain Society's Mohd Yusof Ismail, who has counselled a few such youth, compared it to when youth were used to hawk pirated VCDs in public. 'But these kids don't realise what they're getting into and they're biting off more than they can chew.'

The police have been clamping down hard on loan shark activities, with harsher penalties added in late 2005.

But the youth, lured by what they see as easy money for deceptively simple work, seldom think that far, said counsellors. They can get paid about $50 per job by just splashing paint on doors and scribbling threatening notes on walls.

Lawyer Amolat Singh recently handled a case involving a 17-year-old boy who was promised $100 for delivering a letter at 2am to a debtor. But he never got to pick up his pay because he was caught. He is now under probation.

In addition to vandalism, youth have also been known to lock gates with bicycle chains and smash flowerpots and windows before running away.

A teenage boy and girl, among four youth caught in June, allegedly even set fire to items outside units in Hougang, Woodlands and West Coast.

Interviews with some youth revealed two ways in which they fall in with loan sharks: while they are trying to secure loans and when they join gangs.

A 17-year-old boy said a friend introduced him to an 'Ah Long' at a Geylang coffee shop when he had to pay off $800 in soccer-betting debts.

He was offered a job on the spot: Work for the syndicate rather than borrow money and be saddled with a 20 per cent interest rate. He would earn $800 upfront for 20 assignments. 'I thought this would be much better than owing them because what if I can't pay and they beat me?'

Now midway through his 'bond', he said his first job at a Lengkok Bahru flat was 'quite easy'. All he did was shout loudly, bang on the door and ring the doorbell for 10 minutes, with two 'seniors' look-outs. He said he has pushed debtors around but never beaten anyone.

Mr Yusof reckons these youth are being exploited. 'They've to continue working until they pay off their loan or until they are caught. That's why they are being exploited.'

While some youth are hired while trying to borrow money, others are told to become runners after they join gangs.

New gang members find it hard to turn down assignments as they feel the need to prove their allegiance. 'It isn't a must, but they 'bully' new people into doing it,' said a source close to such gangs.

While they are supposed to just knock on doors, deliver warnings and spray on walls, they may do 'additionals' on their own such as smashing flowerpots.

If the debtor pays up, the youth get a cut of between 3 per cent and 5 per cent of the debt, which is typically about $2,000.But over time, many runners drop out of the job after it dawns on them that the risks outweigh the spoils.

Apart from the fear of being caught by the police, some find themselves getting beaten up by irritated debtors, who can turn out to be gangsters themselves.

The source said: 'A friend got bashed up and was bleeding all over. They're afraid of getting beaten up because if they have to go to the hospital, the police will know.'