Pimp's wife jailed for procuring women

A Filipino who helped recruit women from the Philippines to offer sexual services to customers at three of her Singaporean husband's pubs was jailed for three months on Friday.

Sharon Trinidad Lorenzo, 31, pleaded guilty to procuring the women for prostitution. Her lawyer Sankar Saminathan had asked the court to impose only a fine.

However, District Judge Salina Ishak said a jail term was appropriate considering Lorenzo's "critical role" in recruiting the women.

Her husband, Govindaraju Sivakumar, 40, was jailed on Tuesday for 18 months for offences that included harbouring prostitutes and managing an illegal brothel.

He had met Lorenzo in 2004, when he was then running the Retreat pub in Neil Road.

He hired her as a hostess for two months. She arranged for Filipinas to come to work as waitresses and hostesses at the pub.

Then in 2007, Govindaraju hired her as a domestic helper to take care of his elderly mother. She also helped him manage the women working in his pubs.

She returned to the Philippines in 2010 and they married here in September last year.

By then, Govindaraju was the owner of Club Milagro and Givande pubs in Keong Saik Road and Club Rendevousz in Kampong Bahru Road.

Acting on a complaint from the Philippine Embassy about the trafficking of a Filipina for prostitution, police arrested the couple.

Investigations showed the couple had arranged for 26 women to offer sexual services at the pubs.

The women also worked as dancers and earned commissions on "ladies' drinks" that customers bought for them and from the "bar fines" paid for taking them out for sex. The women, aged between 20 and 32, charged $200 for a two-hour session and $300 for a 12-hour-session.

They also offered other types of sexual services at the pubs for customers who ordered at least 10 "ladies' drinks", each of which cost more than $30.

Govindaraju charged the women $110 each a week to live in an apartment in the west coast area or $120 a week to live in a flat in Spottiswoode Park near his pubs.

He also had rules for them. For every kilogram of weight they put on after their arrival here, $10 would be deducted from their salary which they received every fortnight.

A few of the women told police they thought they would be working as waitresses and dancers, only to find out later that they also had to prostitute themselves.

Lorenzo, who is out on bail, was allowed to start serving sentence on Jan 10.

She could have been fined up to $10,000 or jailed for up to five years, or both.

khush@sph.com.sg

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