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Another case of gambling landing a man in deep trouble, and deep debts!

The Straits Times
Sep 1, 2011
Gambling debts land sales assistant in jail

Sacked after stealing from employer, he worked for loan sharks

HE LOST his job and his flat, and now he has lost his freedom - all to online football betting.

Lee Kim Boon, a 41-year-old father of three, was jailed for three years and ordered to be given 15 strokes of the cane for offences that he had committed in his effort to pay back loans he took to cover his gambling debts: He misappropriated over $55,000 worth of goods and racked up 10 counts of harassing debtors on the orders of loan sharks.

A district court heard that the sales assistant with Super Coffee Corporation got into gambling because he felt humiliated that his $2,000 monthly salary was only half that of his wife's, a logistics executive.

He sought to fatten his bank account through gambling, but instead sank into debt.

In late 2009, he misappropriated $26,918 worth of coffee powder, cereals and non-dairy creamer from his employer, sold them off and used the money to make good on his debts to unlicensed moneylenders. Emboldened by his success, he sold another $28,596 worth of such goods and pocketed the money early last year.

His offences were uncovered during an audit last October. The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau was called in, and he was fired.

Unemployed, he then sold his family home to get his hands on some money. But the plan backfired - there was nothing left after paying back the property loans.

He moved his family into a smaller flat, and was left with only one way of reducing his debt - work for the loan sharks.

Between last December and January, he scribbled graffiti and splashed paint on flats belonging to debtors in Bedok, Tampines, Pasir Ris, Serangoon Road, Hougang and Jurong West. He did this mostly alone, but on four occasions he had an accomplice, known only as Xiao Dong, who is still at large.

Asking the court for leniency, his defence counsel Steven Lam Kuet Keng said a long jail term could break up Lee's family.

In a letter to District Judge Jasvender Kaur, his wife wrote that Lee was close to their children, now aged seven, 10 and 12.

The family, who were in court, cried at the sight of him being handcuffed and led away to begin his jail term.

For misappropriation, he could have been jailed for up to 15 years and fined. On each of the five harassment charges to which he had pleaded guilty, he could have been jailed for up to five years and fined up to $50,000. He could have also been caned up to six times on each count.

KHUSHWANT SINGH
Nowhere in the news report mentioned how much he owe.
Even at the stage when he loss his job at Super Coffee Corp, the family of 4 should be able to live simply on a sole breadearner's income of $4k from the working wife.
How much is the debt that pushed a person to work for loanshark? Maybe he should provide the loan sharks information to the police so that the loan sharks get what they deserve.
Always sad to read such cases.
What did this guy do wrong? 4 Things.

1. He was addicted to gambling.
2. He stole from his employer.
3. He followed what loansharks asked of him.
4. He married someone he is not comfortable with.(i.e. wife earning a higher salary)

Men traditionally is the hunter of the family. He hunts and brings back food and shelter for the family.
This is very much still true in modern times, except it is now in terms of how much money one makes.
NOw what has happened here is that the wife took over the role of the hunter and this guy was somewhat
acting on his instrict(pride) to do better. Would have turned out well if he has sought a more realistic route.



the big loanshark bosses all operating from overseas the ones getting caught in the round-ups are all the juvenile punks that are replaceables very very hard to catch any of these bosses as they keep a low profile.
kudos to the audit team that uncovered this fraud last October 2010. however this crime was committed in late 2009 and it took 1 year for audit team to uncover. I just wonder if it was the external or internal audit team that unravel this mess?

if 1 year timeframe is a norm, i can't imagine that if uncovered fraud was committed in overseas companies such as those S-chips where their operations are largely overseas.

not vested.
there is a way to combat the loanshark problem, if the law enforcement way can't seem to make any headway then it's time to step aside and do it the commercial way. Big Grin

illegal football betting use to be a big problem in singapore but when singapore pools became the biggest bookie on the block illegal bookies mostly went away only the very biggest bookies that accepted huge bets survived but they also took on huge risk with huge bets.

We can do the same with loansharking. Compete with them by going into their turf and undercutting their business by offering much lower interest to debtors eventually these borrowers will see the light when they weigh the risk and hassle of taking loans from illegal lenders and loansharks will be priced out of business, the problem won't completely go away as there will always be a borrower of last resort for the lender of last resort but it will make it easier for law enforcement to handle.