By Bryna Sim

THEY began as greedy young turks, and grew to become "Towkays", or loan shark bosses.

They seemed like successful businessmen.

They flashed namecards, which were colourful and enticing.

Printed in bright orange and pink, the namecards had contact numbers on them, and promised "instant cash".

"We specialise in loans to personal and small businesses, $500-$5000," the namecards said.

They had men and women working for them.

But for two loan shark syndicate financiers, or "Towkays" as they are called, luck ran out yesterday. They were arrested by police officers in their homes in the Punggol-Sengkang area.

One "Towkay" is a 31-year old handphone shop owner (Towkay 1), while the other (Towkay 2), 35, is unemployed.

Both are Singaporeans and are believed to have operated their syndicates locally.

Towkay 1 is said to have been running his syndicate since 2006, and had 20 members before his operations were busted yesterday.

Towkay 2 is said to have been in this line for the last one and a half years, and had 11 members working for him.

Director of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Senior Assistant Commissioner Ng Boon Gay, said one of the suspects was "not previously known to be associated with loan sharking activities".

But the other "Towkay" started out as a runner, and moved up the rungs in the syndicate.

For this reason, Senior Assistant Commissioner Ng emphasised that police are determined to ensure that all levels (in the syndicate), from runners to the Towkays, are taken out of business.

Both "Towkays" operated their syndicates like businesses. They would distribute their calling cards at public places such as Turf City, or would leave them on the windscreens of vehicles at public carparks.

Senior Assistant Commissioner Ng said that one of the syndicates even gave itself aname that sounded like "a finance company", but which did not exist.

Their record-keeping was secretive.

The debtor record books seized during the operation showed records in numerals and alphabets, but with few names and addresses.

Through extensive intelligence gathering and probes, police were able to identify the syndicate members of these "Towkays", who were suspected to be running several different "stalls" islandwide. "Stalls" are what loan shark syndicates call places where they operate. Debtors are told the stall names when they want to borrow money.

"Debtors are introduced to these syndicates by recommendation," said Senior Assistant Commissioner Ng.

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Each of the "Towkays" ran several stalls, and some of these stall names were "Ah Sam", "King Kong", "Ah Choon",and "James".

"The loan sharks will keep changing their 'stall' names to avoid detection," said Senior Assistant Commissioner Ng.

Though the police have smashed two syndicates in yesterday's operation, they suspect that some of those arrested may have been from other syndicates, with loose links to one another.

"Those from the same syndicate were associates before they engaged in illegal loan sharking activities," said Senior Assistant Commissioner Ng.

Police are still investigating to establish if there are links to other syndicates.

Some of the suspects were salesmen, drivers and part-time employees.

Most of them are in their 30s, and most were arrested in the North-East area of Singapore.

Some of those arrested will be charged today.

brynasim@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in The New Paper.