A Chinese national has been jailed and fined for illegal subletting offences.
The district court has sentenced a 26-year-old tenant from China to three months imprisonment and a fine of $12,000 for subletting his condominium unit in Woodlands to three sex workers and living off the earnings of the said prostitutes, reported The Straits Times.
Dong Bin pleaded guilty to one count of permitting a place to be used as a brothel and two counts of living off the earnings of a sex worker. In passing out the sentence, the court considered two similar charges.
Dong earned a total amount of $6,300 for his vice-related activities.
In April, Dong rented a condominium unit at Woodsvale in Woodsland Drive 72, knowing that the unit would be used as a brothel, the court heard.
Notably, a compatriot – known to him as Zhang Ge – had asked Dong to rent a house anywhere in Singapore, with the intent of subletting the rooms to sex workers for vice activities.
For each rented unit, Zhang deducted $2,000 from the money owed to him by Dong. He also promised to give Dong at least $40 per day if he helped Zhang collect the rent from the prostitutes.
Dong rented the Woodsvale condo under his name and that of a friend. Paying a monthly rent of $2,400, he signed an agreement with the property agent and the owner.
Dong handed over the house keys and rental papers to Zhang, who gave him $4,800 in return. Zhang rented the rooms out for $100 per day to three prostitutes aged 37, 23 and 21.
Suspecting vice activities due to the number of people entering and leaving the unit, the condo’s estate manager called the police on 26 May. Although officers from Jurong Police Division repeatedly knocked on the door, the occupants of the condo refused to open up, forcing the police to break into the unit.
The three prostitutes, who admitted to providing sexual services in the unit, were arrested on suspicion of breaching immigration laws.
The police called up Dong for investigations, but he was later released. Dong, however, rented another unit in Block 665, Yishun Avenue 4 just four days after the incident, again at the behest of Zhang.
The following month, Dong and two of the sex workers were nabbed in an anti-vice raid at the Yishun flat. It was found that the prostitutes had also overstayed in Singapore.
Dong could have been jailed for three years and fined $3,000 for permitting a place to be used as a brothel. He could have also been jailed for five years and fined $10,000 for living off the earnings of sex workers.
Zhang, whose identity has not been established, remains at large.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
