Public Prosecutor v Li ChunMei

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Kaur Jasvender
• Judgment Date: 09 July 2008
• Neutral Citation: [2008] SGDC 182
• Published date: 05 August 2008
• Court: District Court (Singapore)
• Plaintiff Counsel: Ravneet Kaur (Deputy Public Prosecutor)
• Defendant Counsel: Tan Kay Bin (Tan Kay Bin & Co)

9 July 2008

District Judge Jasvender Kaur:

1 The accused, a 40-year-old Chinese national, pleaded guilty to one charge of managing a brothel, an offence under s. 148(1) of the Women’s Charter (Cap 353) and three counts of corruptly giving to one Low Soon gratification under s. 5(b)(i) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (Cap 241). Six other similar corruption charges were admitted by her and taken into consideration for the purpose of sentencing.

2 She was fined a total of $15,000, which she has paid. Against that sentence, the public prosecutor has appealed.

Facts of the offences

3 Sometime in 2006, the accused approached one Low Soon, a Singaporean, to register a business styled Mei Yuen Beauty & Therapy with the Accounting & Corporate Regulatory Authority (‘ACRA’) in his name. At her request, in March 2006, he rented a unit at No. 101 Upper Cross Street #03-37 for her to operate the business. He also signed the tenancy agreement.

4 The accused operated a massage establishment at the premises without holding a licence as required under s. 9(a) of the Massage Establishments Act (Cap 173). In addition to massage services, to her knowledge, the masseuses also provided services of sex and masturbation. The accused collected $100 per day from each of the three masseuses. These facts led to the charge of managing a brothel.

5 The accused paid Low Soon a total sum of $5,100 over a period of nine months - $300 in March 2006 and $600 monthly between April to November 2006. These payments were effected by transfers to Low Soon’s POSB Bank account by the accused. The payments were made corruptly for him to assume criminal liability on behalf of the accused arising from the operation of the illegal business. The three charges proceeded with related to payments made in September, October and November 2006. The six charges taken into consideration related to payments made between March and August 2006.

6 On 28 December 2006, the premises were raided by the Anti-Vice Branch of the Criminal Investigation Department. Subsequently Low Soon was arrested by the police. He admitted his role as a scapegoat to assume criminal liability on behalf of the accused. The accused was then arrested on 22 February 2007. She was charged on 17 January 2008.

Mitigation

7 The accused is a divorcee. She has a ten-month old baby born on 14 August 2007. She is now on a special pass and is unemployed. Learned counsel urged me to take into account her plea of guilt and remorse. It was submitted that she committed the offences primarily to eke out a living by providing massage services. He urged me to be lenient and show compassion for her baby.

Sentence

Managing a brothel

8 The offence of managing a brothel provides for a maximum fine of $3,000 or imprisonment up to three years or both. Whether a fine or imprisonment is appropriate depends on the particular facts of each case. A fine is the norm for first offenders unless there are aggravating factors. Here, there were no aggravating factors disclosed. The establishment was not on a large scale. There were only three ladies working there who provided sexual services. There was no sophistication in the operation of the establishment to attract clients. There is nothing to suggest that the ladies were other than willing to provide the sexual services and nothing to suggest that they were of an age which would require that they be protected. There is also no suggestion that the establishment attracted immature youngsters who might be morally corrupted by its influence. It would be noted from the facts that the establishment was run as a massage establishment and as an adjunct sexual services were provided. There is nothing to suggest that the accused engaged the ladies to specifically provide massage and sexual services. Paragraph six of the statement of facts merely states that the accused was aware that sexual services were provided. Accordingly, I was of the view that a fine would be the appropriate sentencing disposition. I noted that the offence was committed over a period of about ten months and came to an end only because of the police raid. As such, I imposed the maximum fine of $3,000.

The corrupt payments

9 The offences of corruptly giving carry a fine up to $100,000 or imprisonment up to five years or both. The corruption charges which involved making monthly payments to Low Soon to take the rap for the accused in order that she may escape the consequences of her offence was of course a serious matter. Such conduct with the objective of perverting the course of justice undermines the rule of law and the whole basis of the administration of the law and generally leads to a custodial sentence because of the objective seriousness of the offence and the need for general deterrence.

10 Whilst the norm is a term of imprisonment, sentences of fines have been passed in at least three cases involving arrangements to assume criminal liability. In PP v Choo Gim Cheong & Ong Lai Huat (MA 270 of 1997), the offenders who were directors of a construction company pleaded guilty to corruptly promising to give $15,000 to someone as an inducement to assume criminal responsibility for employing ten Malaysian workers without work permits. A sum of $2,000 was paid and this formed the subject-matter of the charge that was taken into consideration. The facts disclosed that the scapegoat was introduced by someone who approached the offenders after the workers had been arrested. Eventually, the scapegoat was not called up by the then Ministry of Labour. The company was charged instead for the illegal employment. The personal mitigation was that Choo, aged 68, made substantial contributions and devoted much of his lifetime in the aid of the needy and the less fortunate segment of society since...