THE man who was mistakenly given three more strokes of the cane for abetting an illegal moneylender to harass a debtor was back in court again on Monday for abetting a loanshark.

Dickson Tan Yong Wen, 21, was jailed 16 months after he pleaded guilty to four charges under the Moneylenders Act on Nov 5.

Three other charges were taken into consideration.

A court heard that Tan was spot-checked and arrested for abetment of unlicensed moneylending on Nov 6.

Investigation showed that he was a debtor-turned runner working for someone known only as YY, an illegal moneylender.

In mid-October, he could not repay his loan with YY, and agreed to work for him in return for $1,500 a month.

Out of this amount, $200 would be deducted to offset his existing loan.

His role was to issue loans to would-be debtors and collect repayments from them via electronic fund transfers.

On Nov 5, he had collected two ATM cards for the purpose.

In February last year, Tan was sentenced to nine months' jail and five strokes of the cane for abetting a loanshark to harass a debtor.

But he was caned eight times instead by the prison authorities the following month after a court clerk wrongly recorded the sentence on a document.

He sued the government and it was settled out of court with an undisclosed sum paid to him.