Man hits debt collectors with helmet, netizens side with him

A man was caught on camera hitting debt collectors with a motorcycle helmet on the eve of Chinese New Year.

A video of the incident was shared on Facebook by a company called Singapore Debt Collection Service (SDCS) on Feb 14.

The video shows a confrontation between the man and the company's debt enforcement team in an HDB open-air carpark.

One of the debt collectors demanded money from the man who replied repeatedly: "What money you want?"

But when he noticed something the debt collector was doing, the man said: "Oh, recording ah? I scared ah?"

That was when the man hit the debt collector's head with his helmet. Another debt collector stepped forward to push the man back and was hit with the headgear as well.

In the Facebook post, SDCS explained that the man owed money to its client, who was a vinyl flooring installer.

SDCS recounted: "In 2023, our client offered a special Ramadan early bird promotion for vinyl flooring which featured a 12-month instalment plan at $296 per month. The debtor took this offer and installation commenced on April 29, 2023. Despite the agreed terms, debtor only made three payments in July, September, and October 2023.

"When our client sought our help in November 2023, we sent a letter of demand to the debtor's residence, which went unanswered. Subsequently, our debt enforcement team visited the residence multiple times, but the debtor was consistently unavailable.

"It wasn't until February 2023, during one of our visits that the debtor's family members finally spoke to us. But shortly after, the debtor himself appeared and unfortunately wanted to start a fight with us."

Many netizens slammed the behaviour of the debt collectors in the video.

One commented: "Debt collectors behaving like thugs. To me, you simply deserved it!"

Another said: "Shiok la, act like gangster, be treated like one."

A commenter applauded the debtor: "Good one, my Indian brother, all these so-called licensed debt collectors need you to teach them to behave."

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In response, SDCS commented on its own video: "From the comments, we can see that most of you only look at one side of the story."

To clarify, the company added:

• We are not loan sharks. We only collect debts on behalf of our clients, whether it is personal loans or unpaid business dealings.
• Our client has tried to recover the debt but without success.
• We then served a demand letter to the debtor, but no response.
• We made several attempts to visit the debtor at his home, but he consistently avoided contact.
• When we finally managed to speak to the debtor's family, the situation escalated as he appeared and became confrontational, which led to the incident shown in the video.
• Please note that we always try to discuss amicably with debtors, but situations will sometimes escalate due to debtors trying to avoid the issue or become confrontational.
• Despite these challenges, we remain committed to our duty of recovering debts for our clients.

This article was first published in Stomp. Permission required for reproduction.