Elderly couple hounded by loan sharks while daughter-in-law goes missing

IPOH: An elderly couple is living in fear after their house and cars were splashed with red paint, allegedly by loan sharks.

Chiang Leong Pan, 60, a technician, said the incident happened early morning on Sept 3.

“My aunt, who was visiting us, woke me up and told me about the red paint. All three vehicles, including my aunt’s car, were splashed with red paint. Some of it got splattered on the gate and wall.

“There are also two pieces of paper glued on the wall. It had my house address, daughter-in-law’s name, and phone numbers written with black marker. We think that the phone number belongs to the loan shark. A note ‘Last Warning’ was written in red marker,” he told reporters during a press conference held by Perak Barisan Nasional Public Service and Complaints Centre Chief Mohd Rawi Abdullah at MRA Homestay, Jalan Sultan Nazrin Shah here Wednesday (Sept 6).

Chiang said after the incident, he quickly lodged a police report.

“We tried to contact our daughter-in-law but failed. Even my son doesn’t know her whereabouts. Both of them have been working in Singapore for the past seven years. The last time I saw her was back in June during my mother’s funeral. Her mother was shocked when we told her about it.

“Four of us are staying in the house, including my wife, my son, and our one-year-old grandchild whose mother allegedly borrowed the money.

“I am worried and scared for my family. We didn’t borrow the money, so why did the loan shark come after us?” he said, adding that his daughter-in-law used to work as a promoter.

Mohd Rawi said he had received a lot of similar cases lately.

“The modus operandi on cases like this are more or less the same. Borrowers usually get the loan sharks’ number on social media, and after exchanging personal information, including details of the guarantor; the money will be wired to them immediately.

“When the borrowers fail to pay, the loan shark will go after the guarantor, which is what is happening right now.

“We will write a letter to Bukit Aman regarding this issue, but I would like to advise the public to stop borrowing money from loan sharks. Instead, try to borrow from licensed operators,” he said.