A 44-year-old woman was jailed for four years for committing 48 acts of harassment for a loan shark within five months last year. Kang Gek Keng pleaded guilty in March.

In sentencing her on Monday, District Judge Low Wee Ping said that the number of offences was "shocking". He said that the fact that she had committed nine offences while on bail for earlier crimes was "doubly shocking".

He also noted that at age 25 in 1993, she had been jailed for five years for committing housebreaking and theft. In 2004, she was fined $2,000 for providing public entertainment without a licence. Then in 2009, she was jailed for two years for forgery, corruption and employing illegal workers.

Her latest offences included splashing paint on the doors of debtors' houses and the cars of their neighbours. Kang would also scribbled the debtors' particulars on nearby walls so that the victims would pressure the debtor to pay up.

She had borrowed $2,000 from a loan shark known only as Andy to cover losses in her coffee shop business. When it failed, she was unable to make the repayments and went to work for the loanshark.

For each act of harassment, $50 would be struck from her debt. She was arrested on Aug 24. Released on bail, she continued working for Andy until she was arrested again on Oct 22 last year.