Caning for man who helped loansharks set fire to debtors' homes

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Reporter

Nov 30, 2015 02:14 pm

A cleaning business owner who helped loansharks harass debtors to pay off his own debt was sentenced to five years’ corrective training and 12 strokes of the cane on Monday (Nov 30).

Mohamed Ashyik Mohamed Shawal, 31, had even set fire to the main doors of some of the debtors’ homes.

Court papers said Ashyik borrowed $10,000 from two loan sharks after his cleaning business ran into financial difficulty in May 2015.

When he could not repay his loans, he agreed to work for the loansharks.

In just a week in June 2015, he harassed 22 homes over Singapore by setting fire to main doors, splashing paint, locking gates with a bicycle chain and leaving threatening notes with the neighbours.

In November, he pleaded guilty to nine charges under the Moneylenders Act and one count of drug consumption, with 18 other charges taken into account for sentencing.