With debt-collecting activities going beyond legal limits in recent years, HK Commissioner of Police Dick Lee yesterday proposed a new law to crack down on violators.

 

His suggestion came after debt-collecting activities involving criminal elements reach a high of around 20,000 cases per year over the past three years.

 

Briefing the Legislative Council Panel on Security on the 2005 crime situation, he said over 20,610 debt-collecting cases were reported last year. Of such cases, 11.4 percent involved criminal elements.

 

"A few years ago, the Law Reform Commission proposed regulating debt-collecting activities by law, but the government said there was no such need," he said. "Today, police think that a law may be necessary because the situation has not improved over the last three years and is not expected to improve this year."

 

Lee also announced that approval had been sought from the high-level committee headed by the chief secretary for administration to recruit over 1,200 police officers in 2006.

 

At the panel meeting, Lee reported that the overall situation in 2005 had improved both in terms of the number of cases and the detection rate as compared with the previous year.

 

In 2005, the total number of cases decreased by 4.8 percent from 81,135 in 2004 to 77,437 cases, while the detection rate also slightly rose from 43.6 to 44.3 percent.

 

In particular, robbery cases dropped by 25.1 percent, burglary cases by 21.6 percent, homicide cases by 24.4 percent, serious drug crimes by 17.9 percent and pick-pocketing cases by 24.8 percent.

 

Meanwhile, criminal intimidation cases rose by 24.4 percent, while rape and indecent assault cases increased by 7.6 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively.

 

Lau Kong-wah, of the Democratic Alliance for Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said he had received many complaints from his geographical constituency about debt-collectors splashing red paint on the doors of the debtors.

 

He was worried that the situation would go out of control as money-lending companies were openly distributing leaflets to solicit business in public housing estates.

 

"Many citizens felt they were threatened (by debt collecting activities), yet about 90 percent of such cases were not classified as criminal offences," he said.

 

Democratic Party's Cheung Man-kwong also noted that over 9,000 young people under 20 were arrested last year. He called the figure shocking from the education sector's point of view and was also concerned about the new trend of students being hired as debt-collectors.

 

Moreover, legal constituency legislator Margaret Ng expressed concern towards family violence cases and asked if police superintendents' discretion towards juvenile offenders could be applied to non-criminal family disputes.

 

Lee replied that family disputes involving violence would be dealt with through criminal investigations while non-violent cases would be referred to the Social Welfare Department and non-governmental organizations.

 

As for the police superintendents giving minor offenders the chance to repent, he said it was a new idea to apply it to family dispute cases but it needed careful study.

 

(China Daily January 25, 2006)