Call Collect

INTIMIDATION and violence, using 'street toughs', are used on a regular basis to retrieve outstanding money, according to the head of a debt recovery agency in Tsim Sha Tsui.

The collector, Mr Wong (not his real name), made the claim in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Morning Post. His company specialises in getting back cash owed to mainland companies by Hong Kong entrepreneurs.

Mr Wong admitted his business used 'street toughs', and added that even triad bosses were not immune. If one of them was in debt, the firm was prepared to risk full-scale triad warfare to extract a payment. 'When we talk to the debtor, we tell them if you don't pay up you know what will happen.

'Our company will use any means possible to help others retrieve long-delayed debts over $5,000,' Mr Wong said. 'The higher the amount and the further afield the debtor lives, the more we will charge. Usually we will get 20 or 30 per cent of the debt while the rest will go to the client.' 'In collecting debts, it is sometimes necessary for us to use violence and intimidation. Experience tells us such methods are the most efficient way of collecting debts,' he said.

'If the debtors do not pay up after we tell them, we will harass them or their close relatives in different ways.

'Usually we go to the debtors' houses first. If we cannot find them, we contact their relatives using the same methods we use for debtors.

'We send guys to visit their homes every night and knock at the door loudly after midnight.

'When they open the door, we just remind them their relatives owe us money and then leave at once. We will do this five or six times each night.

'If we know for sure that either the debtors or their relatives are at home, or at work in their offices, we will ring them at all hours of the day and night, every day and night. Sometimes we even tell their employers and colleagues the facts. We also send them letters both by mail or by fax.

'It is ideal if we can get their pictures. We paste the photos at every eye-catching place around the lobby and the lift of their office and apartment buildings.

'The pictures are usually some kind of 'Man-Wanted' advertisement, on which we will list all the details of the debtors, saying how long they have owed someone money and listing the total amount. Sometimes we will also write down their telephone number and address,' said Mr Wong.

He said his team did not cut electricity supplies, or deface the walls of debtors' homes with roughly scrawled details of their debts because that would 'make the place dirty'.

However, he admitted his men would approach debtors in public places such as restaurants and cinemas.

'We would talk to them loudly, asking them why they haven't yet paid up and what they want us to do next. We would make them feel as ashamed and look as disgraced as possible.

'By using these methods, the debtors will always automatically contact and negotiate with us shortly afterwards.

'This is the kind of psychological pressure imposed via their relatives that we always apply to make the debtors pay up.' Mr Wong claimed his firm would finish every job 'by hook or by crook' but would not resort to murder. He said the success rate was more than 85 per cent and only the bankrupt whose relatives had no access to cash were left alone.

'If the debtors claimed they had no money to pay back, we would then contact their family members and their relatives to see whether they had money or any valuable property, such as a car or house, to be used as compensation for the debt.' 'If we fail to retrieve a debt, we don't charge a service fee. This is the only risk we have to bear and the impetus that drives us to collect debts by any possible means,' he said.

Mr Wong said if his employees were injured or sentenced to prison because of their work, the company would compensate their families to the tune of 'several thousand dollars'.

He said the worst headaches in the business involved coming up against debtors who were senior triad figures.

'What we do first is bargain with them based on the fact they owe money to our client. If they insist on not paying the debt back, a brutal battle may be inevitable and no one can predict what will happen,' Mr Wong said.

In these circumstances they sometimes asked for help from bigger debt-collection companies.

Mr Wong said in most difficult jobs, his staff would not appear in person to avoid getting the company into trouble. Instead outsiders would be employed.

'The debtors seldom dare to call the police for help because it is they who owe our clients money in the first place. Even if they called the police, they would not have any evidence to prove our guilt because the job was carried out by others, not us directly.' Mr Wong acknowledged that three of his staff from a previous company had been caught by the police in the 1980s and successfully prosecuted for assault and battery. However, their loyalty prevented them from identifying their employers. When asked whether triads were used, Mr Wong said: 'Use your sense to guess; I have no comment.

'Although we don't have any sub-companies in other countries, we have thousands of Chinese staff abroad ready to serve our clients. Wherever there are Chinese people, we have staff, so it is pointless for debtors to flee abroad.' MR Wong said the company sometimes collected debts in Thailand, Taiwan, Canada and the Philippines. The firm was registered in Hong Kong three years ago. Before that, Mr Wong said, he and 'his brothers' had been in the money-lending business.

Most of his clients in China were involved in the import and export of textiles. The service fee he charged depended on the size of the debt and where the debtor lived. He added that demand for his firm's services had increased as business between China and Hong Kong boomed.

He claimed his firm last year helped a Chinese clothing company collect a $10 million debt from a Hong Kong firm, taking $3 million in commission. He declined to reveal which companies were involved.

In the past three years, he said, his company had collected more than $20 million. The profits were invested in loan-sharking ventures with high interest rates.

According to David Lau Fu-keung, operation director of Dun and Bradstreet International, an American debt-collection company with 160 branches around the world, there were about 30 such companies registered in Hong Kong.

'We wouldn't apply any violent methods to get the debt back. We send letters, conduct face-to-face interviews, and make contact by telephone,' he said.

Mr Lau said his company had a success rate of 40 per cent and charged clients between 10 and 45 per cent of the retrieved sum, depending on the difficulty involved. A government spokesman said there were no regulations to control debt-collectors. This is not for lack of interest, however. Legislators have repeatedly asked for government action against organisations that intimidate debtors.

Kevin Laurie, assistant district commander of Yau Tsim police, said the debt collector was typical of the 'many thugs' conducting that sort of business in Hong Kong. He said it was difficult for police because Hong Kong lacked an organised crime act.

'The way they operate is against all civilised norms. Debt-collecting is more serious than robbery. It is going to get worse as trade increases with China. Legitimate legal recourse is slow and unsatisfactory,' the officer said.

'It is very frustrating dealing with them [debt collectors]. You rarely get them because the law is ineffective. We frequently get cases of people being abducted by them. They have no respect for law and no fear of it. They are very adept at avoiding justice.'