S'pore literature teacher, 42, coerced by loan shark to act as runner & send victims raw pork hooves, gets jail

The Singapore secondary school teacher accused of carrying out harassment on behalf of unlicensed moneylenders was sentenced on May 8 to one year and six months' jail.

Geraldine Quek Yi Ling, 42, pleaded guilty to seven charges of acting on behalf of an unlicensed moneylender, CNA reported.

12 other charges were taken into consideration.

Unable to repay the money she borrowed from loan sharks for cryptocurrency investments that later failed, Quek was herself harassed, including being forced to send a nude photo and video of herself.

She was later offered a chance to reduce her debt and decided to take it up as she wanted the harassment to cease.

In less than a month, she harassed at least five victims by sending them raw pork hooves, hell notes and publicising photos of their NRIC numbers.

Quek was previously listed as the Head of Department of English Language and Literature at St. Patrick's School.

Failed crypto investments

According to court documents, Quek began investing in cryptocurrency sometime in 2023.

She later borrowed money from unlicensed moneylenders to fund her investment.

After the cryptocurrency market crashed, Quek was unable to repay her loans.

She had debts with four different unlicensed moneylenders.

Forced to send nudes of herself

Quek was introduced to another unlicensed moneylender, known only as "Travis Heng", in December 2024 and borrowed S$600 from him.

She made weekly payments of S$100 to S$200 to him as she was unable to repay the full amount, but was later told that the amount owed had grown due to interest.

Her attempts at negotiating her repayment schedule with him failed, and he began subjecting her to harassment.

Before Oct. 8, 2025, he forced Quek to take and send to him a nude photo of herself under the threat of further harassment.

He then told Quek to film a nude video and threatened to leak the nude photo if she did not comply.

A chance to reduce debt

Later in October 2025, the loan shark offered Quek a chance to reduce her debt by taking photos and videos of the flats of his borrowers, with S$10 offset from her debt for each unit she photographed.

She was also asked to place debtor notes at the entrance of some flats.

Quek took up the offer as she wanted the harassment to stop.

She went on to carry out the harassment of other victims under the instruction of Heng throughout the remainder of October 2025 and in November 2025.

The harassment included the placement of debtor notes, aiding the loan shark in placing raw pork hooves outside victims' flats, and mailing hell notes along with photos of victims holding their NRIC cards.

Quek was eventually arrested on Nov. 25, 2025.

Unfortunate circumstances do not excuse actions: Prosecution

Deputy Public Prosecutor Xavier Tan told the court that while he acknowledged that Quek had found herself in "unfortunate circumstances", it did not excuse her actions, CNA wrote.

The prosecution sought 18 to 24 months' jail.

Quek's defence lawyer highlighted her "sad situation", providing WhatsApp messages of her conversation with Heng to demonstrate the coercion she faced.

The defence asked for no more than 18 months' jail.

The Ministry of Education told CNA that Quek has not been employed by the ministry since March, that it takes a serious view of staff misconduct and that it will not hesitate to take disciplinary action against those who run afoul of its standards of conduct and discipline.