Man jailed 16 months for role in prostitution ring

SINGAPORE — Facing financial distress, he decided to take up a key role in a transnational vice syndicate — receiving Thai women who had come here to work as prostitutes, then living off their earnings.

These women were subjected to harsh conditions — one woman provided sexual services to 15 customers over three days, and was given only S$20 for food.

And in a bid to ensure that his “business” did better than that of the competition, Goh Huang Yang also distributed notes with “distress messages” of women forced into prostitution by rival vice operators, to sabotage them.

The 49-year-old was sentenced to 16 months’ jail and fined S$49,000 on Wednesday for three counts of harbouring a woman for prostitution, one count of abetting in receiving a woman for prostitution, and three counts of knowingly living in part on the earnings of a prostitute. Twelve other similar charges were taken into consideration in sentencing him.

The court heard that, sometime in 2011 or 2012, Goh, who worked part-time inspecting renovation works, had started a relationship with a Thai woman named Noi, who frequented his pub at Concord Hotel.

Knowing that Goh was facing financial problems, Noi suggested in December 2014 that he could help her make the necessary arrangements for Thai women to work as prostitutes in Singapore. 

Investigations revealed that, between March and April last year, Goh had received — or engaged others to receive — at least eight such women. Goh would then arrange for their accommodation and brief them on how to conduct their prostitution activities.

He instructed that if they were ever caught by the police, they were to state that they were working as “freelance prostitutes”, and warned that they would be sent to jail if they divulged the boss’ identity.

Goh took a cut of S$3,000 per month from the trade for at least 18 months, the court was told.

The prosecution said the women had willingly engaged in the activities, but they were subject to “onerous terms”, such as not receiving any money from the first 24 clients they serviced.
 
Goh also put up false messages that prostitutes were in distress in his attempt to hurt other vice enterprises and promote his own business, the court heard.

At least 20 similar notes were slotted through the doors of units, and condominiums and apartment complexes in Singapore between March and December 2015, resulting in significant resources spent investigating false messages, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Sruthi Boppana.

DPP Sruthi had sought a sentence of 16 to 18 months’ jail and a maximum fine of S$70,000, stressing that Goh’s offences involved a transnational element and had gone without detection for at least one-and-a-half years. “This would ensure that profits which have been gained through unlawful means are duly disgorged,” she said.

Goh could have been jailed five years and/or fined S$10,000 for each charge of harbouring a woman for prostitution, as well as knowingly living in part on the earnings of prostitution of another person.