What a bizarre event. The news reported that a 34-year-old man who deceived a loan shark by claiming to intimidate debtors but did not fulfil the activities was jailed for 11 days and fined S$1000 on Wednesday (Jan 6).
Muhammad Khairul Ismail pled guilty to one charge of fraud and another of gambling via a smartphone app, with two other offences taken into account for cheating the unlicensed moneylender.
A job offer by the loan shark
The jury heard that in November 2019, Khairul came across a work offer from a loan shark named Lucas. In return for cash, the agreement was for Khairul to lock the gates of Lucas’s debtors.
Khairul approached him intending to make quick cash, despite recognising that Lucas was a money lender. They decided that Khairul would lock Lucas’s debtors’ gates, paste notes on their doors, and send Lucas videos of these activities as evidence.
In return for each job done, Lucas offered to pay amounts of money varying from S$100 to S$120.
Instructions sent to Khairul via WhatsApp
Image Credits: thenextweb.com
Lucas issued instructions via WhatsApp to Khairul in December 2019. He asked Khairul to lock up a borrower’s unit with a chain and paste a sign on the door. As ordered, Khairul headed to the address but had already intended to deceive Lucas by tricking him into thinking that he had completed the harassment.
Khairul secured the gate with two bicycle locks and placed a message on one of the locks to prevent damaging the gate. He then took a video and sent it to Lucas, misguiding him into thinking that the act had taken place.
S$120 was transferred to him by Lucas, but Khairul removed the locks and notice from the gate before fleeing. Khairul replicated this action on two other instances towards Lucas.
Offences came to light after authorities alerted
When Lucas forwarded the footage of the harassment to the debtors, the activities came to light and the police were notified.
Khairul also pleaded guilty to another charge of making bets on a smartphone gaming platform amounting to around S$1,120. For the fraud, the prosecution called for at least two weeks in prison and a penalty of S$1,000 for the gambling offence.
Not an average innocent member of the public
Image Credits: The Straits Times
Deputy Public Prosecutor Krystle Chiang admitted that an unauthorised moneylender and not a regular helpless member of the public was the subject of cheating. However, “this does not absolve the accused of wrongdoing and should not distract from the fact that the accused had sustained wrongful gain by his deception”, she said.
To claim that crimes conducted against those individuals should not be prosecuted will be a dangerous path to take. She added that over the three cheating incidents, Khairul had earned S$340. He was also the one who facilitated conversations with Lucas.
A unique case in its entirety
The court said this trial was a little unusual because Lucas wasn’t ever supposed to have given Khairul the money to carry out loan shark intimidations.
Khairul responded in remorse that he had learnt from his wrongdoing and felt repentant for his actions. He also promised the court that his actions would not be repeated.
For cheating, Khairul could have been fined and imprisoned for up to 10 years in this case.