JUDGMENT

Tee Geok Hock JC:

Introduction

[1] What Lee Swee Seng JCA said in the following passage relating to the moneylending transaction disguised as a sale and purchase of property in the case of Mahmood Ooyub v. Lee Chee Long , 2020 MarsdenLR 96 is also true regarding other forms of disguise including various forms of illegal moneylending which do not involve the use of property title:

"[1] It is not always easy to discern and distinguish the real from the fake, the genuine from the sham. It is often a world of genuine imitation that we find ourselves to be in. It is no different in the seedy world of illegal moneylending or "along" as is our local parlance for it. Human nature being what it is, we are not far from the days of The Merchant of Venice, where Shylock demanded his pound of flesh! If at all, the subterfuge and chicanery have become more sophisticated."

[2] While human ingenuity has enabled the illegal moneylenders to contrive many various forms of disguise to camouflage their moneylending transactions, the experience and knowledge gained by other people over a long period of time have led the Courts to discern the forms of disguise in vogue and to expose illegal moneylen