Jail for S'porean man who cheated loan shark by taking money to harass homes but didn't

Muhammad Khairul Ismail was sentenced to jail for 11 days and fined S$1,000.

Andrew Koay | January 06, 2021, 11:51 PM

Hired by a loan shark to carry out several harassment acts, a Singaporean man instead pretended to complete the tasks before collecting his pay.

For his efforts — or lack thereof — Muhammad Khairul Ismail was sentenced to jail for 11 days and fined S$1,000 on Wednesday (Jan. 6), according to CNA.

The 34-year-old had pleaded guilty to one charge of cheating and one charge of gambling through a mobile application.

Another two charges of cheating the unlicensed moneylender were taken into consideration.

A loan shark's job offer

According to court documents seen by Mothership, Khairul came across a job offer by a loan shark known to him only as Lucas who was looking for people to carry out harassments of his debtors.

With the intention of earning fast cash, Khairul subsequently reached out to Lucas with full knowledge that he was an unlicensed moneylender.

They eventually agreed that Khairul would lock the gates of the loan shark's debtors, paste notes on their doors, and record the act to send to Lucas as proof of the deed being completed.

In exchange, Lucas promised to pay Khairul between S$100 to S$120 for each completed harassment.

Duping the loan shark

On Dec. 10, 2019, Lucas instructed Khairul to lock up a debtor's house and provided the offender with the debtor's address.

That same day, Khairul proceeded to the house though he did not complete the harassment as previously agreed.

Instead, after he locked the debtor's gate with two bicycle locks, affixed a note onto one of the locks, and took a video of the act, Khairul removed the aforementioned items.

However, he sent the video of the act to Lucas anyway, duping the loan shark into believing the harassment had been completed.

None the wiser, Lucas then transferred S$120 to Khairul.

Court documents also revealed that Khairul had engaged in remote gambling on the mobile application 918KISS.

A unique case

In her skeletal submissions for Khairul's sentencing, Deputy Public Prosecutor Krystle Chiang stated that the offender had cheated the loan shark of S$340 over three separate occasions.

While she acknowledged that Lucas was "not a typical innocent member of the public", Khairul had still achieved wrongful gain by his deception.

He also initiated contact with the loan shark with the purpose of earning fast cash and had no business meddling with the properties of innocent third parties, wrote Chiang.

The prosecutor asked for Khairul to be sentenced to at least two weeks in prison and fined at least S$1,000.

According to CNA, in sentencing Khiarul, the judge noted the unique nature of the case, since Lucas was not supposed to have offered money to Khairul in the first place.

The offender told the court of his remorse for his actions, vowing not to repeat them.

For cheating, Khairul could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

Khairul has filed an appeal and is out on bail.

Top image from Free to Use Sounds via Unsplash