With the holidays set into momentum, students will start to
search for part time jobs. This is also time, where 'charity touts'
appear. These people, asking for donation, would usually loiter
outside MRT stations and/or shopping centres, to get th donations.
Like ask u to donate $5 for blah blah. It is good to help less
fortunate. However, most of these activities, are illegal. They are
conducting such activities, without a police permit.
Under Chapter 128 of the (law?), House to House And Street
Collections Act. It is an offence to collect funds for charities
without a Police Permit. Section 6, clearly explains the
rules.
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Unauthorised use of badges, etc.
6. (1) Any person who, in connection with any appeal to the public
or any class of the public for subscriptions or contributions of
money or other property
(a) displays or uses a prescribed badge or a prescribed certificate
of authority other than a badge or certificate which he is
authorised, under any regulations made under this Act, so to
display or use; or
(b) displays or uses any badge, device, emblem, certificate or
other document intended, calculated or likely to cause any person
to believe that the person displaying or using the same is an
authorised collector for the purposes of a licensed collection when
such is not the case,
shall be guilty of an offence.
(2) Any person who, in furnishing any information for the purposes
of this Act or any regulations made thereunder, knowingly or
recklessly makes any statement which is false in any material
particular shall be guilty of an offence.
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Penalties.
8. (1) Any person guilty of an offence under this Act for which no
special penalty is provided by this Act or by any regulations made
thereunder shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding
$1,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to
both.
(2) Where any offence under this Act is committed by any
corporation, society, association or body of persons, every person
charged with, or concerned or acting in, the control or management
of the affairs or activities of the corporation, society,
association or body of persons shall be deemed to be guilty of that
offence and shall be liable to be punished accordingly unless it is
proved by any such person that, through no neglect or omission on
his part, he was not aware that the offence was being or was about
to be committed or that he took all reasonable steps to prevent its
commission.
------------------
It is safer to request for a relevant police permit upon being
asked to make donations. There is a recent case of a person, trying
to collect funds for Mercy Relief. However, Mercy Relief released a
statement that it is not doing such collections. That doesn't mean
we should shun away from people who ask us to make donations.
However, at this point of time. I am not sure, that whether such
fund-raising activities need to have another permit from the
Commissioner of Charities. Chapter 37, Charities Act, section 39
states that ...
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Prohibition on conducting fund-raising appeal without permit.
39. (1) No person shall conduct or participate in any fund-raising
appeal unless he is
(a) exempt from the provision of this section; or
(b) a person to whom a permit has been granted by the Commissioner
in accordance with regulations made for the purpose of this
section.
(2) Any person who contravenes or fails to comply with subsection
(1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction
to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not
exceeding 3 years or to both. (3) The Minister, or such person as
he may appoint, may exempt any person or class of persons from the
provision of this section. (4) In this section and any regulations
made for the purpose of this section
"fund-raising appeal" means the soliciting or receiving from the
public or any class of the public of any money or other property
(whether for consideration or otherwise) which is made in
association with a representation that the whole or any part of its
proceeds is to be applied for charitable, benevolent or
philanthropic purposes;
"proceeds" , in relation to a fund-raising appeal, means all money
or other property given (whether for consideration or otherwise) in
response to the fund-raising appeal in question.
(5) In this section and any regulations made for the purpose of
this section, any reference to charitable purposes, where occurring
in the context of a reference to charitable, benevolent or
philanthropic purposes, is a reference to charitable purposes
whether or not the purposes are charitable within the meaning of
any rule of law.
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At this point of time, I am not very sure of how the permit granted
by the Commissioner of Charities looks like. I presume that an
approved police permit would have a SPF insignia at the top of the
page.
Meanwhile, just tell those who are very persistent and irritating
(and illegal, of course) that u are going to call the police. But,
trust me, they are probably going to just laugh at u.
PS: The above sections quoted from the law, are taken from
http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/ .
