Online vice ring case: Another man jailed

Online vice ring case: Another man jailed

A businessman was yesterday jailed for 12 weeks for having paid sex with an underage prostitute.

Yap Eng Kian was one of 51 men charged with having sex with the same 17-year-old in a high- profile vice ring case, which has been going on since 2012.

He pleaded guilty to paying $650 for the girl's services on Dec 22, 2010.

The offence took place at Strand Hotel in Bencoolen Street between 6.48pm and 8.42pm that evening.

The girl operated under the moniker "Chantelle" in an online vice ring run by 41-year-old pimp Tang Boon Thiew, who was jailed for four years and 10 months, and fined $90,000 for vice-related offences.

She was described on Tang's website as an 18-year-old polytechnic student. She was actually 17 at the time.

Investigations revealed that Yap came across the website in November 2010 when he was surfing the Internet.

He contacted Tang by text message and booked the services of the girl for 1 1/2 hours.

Most of the other 39 offenders who have already been dealt with, including a lawyer, pilot, teacher and company director, were jailed for between nine and 12 weeks. The only one to escape a jail term so far is Kelvin Peck Yong Li.

The 23-year-old, who worked at his father's electrical appliances shop as a sales promoter, received 18 months' probation and was ordered to perform 120 hours of community service on April 28 this year.

The maximum penalty for commercial sex with a person under 18 years of age is seven years in jail and a fine.



This article was first published on July 30, 2014.
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