Harsher penalties for serious crimes: Why S'pore is getting tough

Worsening situation in areas such as scams prompts MHA to seek deterrent sentences

- Christine Tan

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 $3.4 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 $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.