THE authorities are looking into additional mesures to counter harassment by loansharks, said Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng.

'We will not hesitate to implement them, if necesary, to counter this scourge,' he warned, adding that police will continue to put pressure on loanshark syndicates through painstaking investigation and work with the community to enhance security vigilance on the ground.

In his written reply to questions from Mrs Josephine Teo, MP for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, in Parliament on Monday, Mr Wong, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister, said there were 8,174, 9,912 and 9,364 cases of loan-shark related harassment reported in 2005, 2006 and 2007 respectively.

They included repeat reports made by a household and reports made by several households of the same incident.

He said some loanshark runners even harrassed, vandalised and intimidated home-owners who were unconnected to the borrower or purported borrower, other than being a neighbour.

The situation was exacerbated by borrowers being recruited to join loanshark syndicates as runners to discharge their debts.

Loansharks are also constantly evolving their modus operandi to evade police detection, he noted.

'Transaction risks and costs to the syndicates have been reduced over the years, as the technology for communication and money transfers has proliferated. Syndicates can relocate their operations overseas to evade detection and arrests but continue to supervise local operations through the Internet and Internet telephony,' said the minister.

Asked how long does it take to solve such cases, Mr Wong said as every case is different, the time taken varies depending on the circumstances and complexity of the case.

'There are cases, though not often, where police officers arrest the offender when the crime is being committed. In other cases, there are few leads and more time is required,' he said.

'The lack of cooperation of borrowers and the involvement of syndicates, sometimes with directing elements based abroad, adds to the complexity of investigations. Such cases will take much longer to solve.'

Mr Wong said by their nature, loan-shark harassment cases are not easy to solve. Unless the perpetrators are caught in the act, there are often few leads that police can follow-up on.

This is especially so in situations involving innocent victims of harassment who have no idea who the loansharks are.

'Nevertheless, Police assures me that it will press on resolutely to counter this scourge that poses a threat to Singaporeans' sense of safety and security. We continue to monitor the situation closely,' he said.

Since 2005, the authorities have upped the ante by introducing several tough measures, encouraged community vigilance and enhanced security features in residential areas.

While these measures have ensured that the situation does not get worse, the number of harassment cases is still high and should be reduced, Mr Wong said.