Aunties jailed after ‘reign of grey terror’

BEIJING: Members of a Chinese “auntie gang” of debt-collectors have been jailed over a reign of grey terror in which they menaced victims and even stripped naked to get them to cough up, The Beijing News reported yesterday.

Fourteen of the senior enforcers were jailed for up to 11 years after being convicted of “organising and participating in gangster-like organisations and for their provocative behaviour”.

All told, about 30 women with an average age of 50 – some of whom had met while engaging in the common elderly Chinese pastime of dancing in public squares – took part in the scheme in Shangqiu, Henan.

The sentences were handed down last month after a four-year spree in which the accused – hired by a property developer and firms that wanted debts paid – used strong-arm tactics to collect the money or force people from their homes.

They would shout at or insult debtors into submission using loudspeakers. When that did not work, they spat at them.

Some female victims reportedly had their clothes torn off if they resisted, while men said the aggressive aunties would rip off their own clothes to imply they had been sexually assaulted.

One of the ringleaders, a blind woman named Gao Yun, told The Beijing News the nefarious scheme had been a way to kill time and was “something fun to do”. – AFP