By Maureen Koh

ON the same day of Ms Gemma Hernandez's acquittal, another Filipino maid was jailed for 20 months for moonlighting as a loan shark.

Rebecca Andicoy Alcalde, 28, operated only on Sundays, her day off. She dished out loans of up to $300 to other maids.

Operating mostly at Lucky Plaza shopping centre on Orchard Road, Alcalde would charge 20 per cent interest on loans to cash-strapped foreign workers.

The court heard that Alcalde hatched the plan in 2005.

She noticed that many Filipinos were borrowing money from loan sharks or paying off their debts at Lucky Plaza.
She approached a friend, who used to be a moneylender, and learnt how to keep track of debts and payments.

Without her employer's knowledge, she went into business with $5,000 of her savings. She even recruited Singaporean Lim Meng Inn, 47, as her runner.

Alcalde pleaded guilty to 11 charges of illegal moneylending, with 21 similar charges taken into consideration by the judge in deciding the sentence.

This article was first published in The New Paper on Oct 12, 2008.