Lawrence Yeo was jailed for two years and fined $150,000 for running a loan shark racket with four Filipino maids. -- PHOTO: ZAOBAO
REVELATIONS that the father of Nominated MP and former national swimmer Joscelin Yeo had been convicted of loan shark activities have stunned the swimming community.
On Tuesday, Lawrence Yeo was jailed for two years and fined $150,000 after pleading guilty to running an illegal moneylending racket with four Filipino maids.
The 68-year-old began loan-sharking in June last year. Operating out of his flat in Bukit Batok, he used computers and a mobile phone to keep track of his borrowers and loans.
An estimated $10,000 was loaned out to borrowers - all Filipino maids. When told of the news, Singapore Swimming Association secretary-general Oon Jin Gee said he was shocked, describing Yeo as a supportive parent throughout Joscelin's swimming career.
'I always found him to be a fair and down-to-earth person,' said Mr Oon. 'My heart goes out to his family. They have gone through a lot.'
Yeo, a former assistant general manager with Maybank, often attended his daughter's swimming meets with his late wife Tan Lee Choo, who died from a brain tumour in 2009.
