SINGAPORE: The Republic has a reputation for being one of the safest countries in the world, and this is in part due to its harsh punishments to deter crime.
The laws at its disposal may soon include caning scammers and their money mules, as proposed in the Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill that was tabled in Parliament on Oct 14.
In line with Singapore’s history of strengthening laws to deal with the crime scourge of the day, the Bill signals a similar approach being adopted today.
Take, for example, scams, which have wreaked havoc, with victims here having lost S$3.4 billion (US$2.62 billion) since 2019.
Some victims lost more than their money, dying by suicide. Like the police full-time national serviceman who died in August 2021 by a gunshot wound after he lost over S$10,000 in a scam.
If the Bill is passed, scammers, scam syndicate members and its recruiters will face mandatory caning of between six and 24 strokes depending on the severity of the offence.
The Bill also proposes discretionary caning of up to 12 strokes for scam mules, such as those who provide their Singpass credentials, SIM cards or bank accounts to be used in scams.
This is the Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MHA) way of pulling out all the stops to dish out deterrent sentences to tackle the worsening situation.
Clearly, it felt more needed to be done, after introducing new offences in May 2023 to tackle scams.
These included rash and negligent money laundering offences, meant to deter money mules who sell their bank accounts and Singpass details to crooks who use them to launder scam proceeds.
Caning scammers was first raised in March by then Jurong GRC MP Tan Wu Meng in a debate on MHA’s budget.
Dr Tan, who was then overseeing the Clementi ward, talked about a resident who lost her life savings to scams and asked if Singapore was too soft on scammers.
Criminal lawyer Josephus Tan said caning is a tried-and-tested approach to deter crime, as seen from how the Government dealt with loan shark offences previously.
After mandatory caning was introduced in 2010 for first-time offenders who assist unlicensed moneylenders, the number of loan shark harassment cases fell from 11,776 cases in 2011, to 3,336 cases in 2020.
Tan said: “Some people think that (caning is) very harsh. Actually, it’s not. We have done this before, and it was proven very successful in tackling prevalent crimes on a wide scale.”
‘The worst of the worst’
Another proposed amendment seeks to increase the maximum jail term for the fatal abuse of vulnerable victims from the current 20 years to life imprisonment or up to 30 years.
Vulnerable victims refer to children under the age of 14, domestic workers and individuals who, because of their mental or physical conditions, cannot protect themselves from abuse.
The police told ST that under these offences, there have not been any reported incidents of fatal migrant domestic worker (MDW) abuse cases in the last five years.
Latest statistics provided to ST by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Oct 18 showed there was an average of 320 reports of MDW abuse annually from 2020 to 2024 – or about one case daily.
An MOM spokesman added that within this period, the incidence rates of abuse reported had decreased from about 1.3 per 1,000 MDWs in 2020, to about an annual average of 1.2 per 1,000 MDWs between 2022 and 2024.
Nevertheless, the proposal comes after several disturbing, high-profile abuse cases that sparked public outrage.
They included a couple who repeatedly splashed hot water on their five-year-old son until the boy died from his injuries, and the death of Myanmar domestic worker Piang Ngaih Don at the hands of her employer Gaiyathiri Murugayan and the latter’s family members.
