SINGAPORE: When a group of women came to Singapore from the Philippines on the promise of earning S$800 (US$600) a month, they were shocked to realise that the job at a club involved providing sexual services to customers – often openly by the stage.
They lived in cramped conditions in a flat in Geylang and were not allowed to leave except to run errands in the span of 30 minutes at most. In order to pay their mounting debts to the club, they were forced to provide more and more sexual services.
Eventually, a single mother who was pressurised into having sex with a customer went to the police for help, blowing the case wide open.
The two men who ran clubs where women provided illicit sexual services by the stage or in VIP rooms were sentenced to jail on Friday (May 12).
Owner Tan Teck Heng, 63, was sentenced to 23 months’ jail, while his subordinate Chong Kien Meng, 51, was given 18 months’ jail.
They had claimed trial, but were each convicted of eight charges under the Women’s Charter. These include living on the earnings of sex work and managing or assisting in managing a brothel.
The court heard that Tan owned two clubs – Club Atlantis and Club Delilah.
Club Atlantis employed Filipino women as entertainers. Each entertainer owed an “utang” or debt of around S$3,300 or S$3,500 to the club before even starting the job.
This was in return for arrangements made by the club for the women to work in Singapore.
According to their contracts, they were to be paid a salary of S$800 per month, but failed to receive this.
Their only source of income was the commission they earned from ladies’ drinks. All the commission went towards defraying their “utang” or S$217 weekly rent.
Most of the women owed the club money even after working for months, and sometimes relied on cash advances from the club.
As a result, some of them had to work extra hours at the clubs to pay off their debts, and were encouraged by Chong to provide more sexual services to earn more money through the sale of ladies’ drinks.
If they wanted to leave before their contract ended, they were told that they had to pay S$5,000 to the club for breach of contract.
Eight entertainers from Club Atlantis stayed in a flat in Geylang that the club rented, sharing it with another eight entertainers from sister club Club Delilah.
They lived with a manager who supervised them to ensure that none of them left the flat without permission – except to run errands within 30 minutes.
The entertainers owed the club S$217 per week as rental for staying in the flat.
They eventually had difficulty affording even food.
THE ENTERTAINERS’ EVIDENCE
Eight entertainers gave evidence during the trial. Six of them said that the entertainers would provide sexual services including intercourse to customers, in order to encourage them to buy more ladies’ drinks.
These drinks were alcoholic beverages that were more expensive than usual. Customers had to pay for ladies’ drinks before they could spend time with the entertainers in the club.
There was no minimum amount of ladies’ drinks that a customer had to buy before such sexual services – which took place on a sofa near the stage or in the VIP rooms – would be provided.
However, customers had to spend at least S$500 to use the VIP rooms.
The club would take a cut of the earnings from the ladies’ drinks. The entertainers would receive tips sometimes, but this was not allowed and was the exception rather than the norm. In almost all instances, the customers paid for sexual services through the ladies’ drinks.
One entertainer who testified in the trial said she was a single mother who came to Singapore to support her child.
She began working the night she arrived in August 2019, and initially resisted providing sexual services even though she knew the rest were doing it.
She had witnessed some entertainers giving a group of customers sexual services on the sofa near the stage, leaving her shocked.
However, she felt pressurised by Chong and the fact that she had very little points in the club system as she was unwilling to give sexual services to customers to entice them to buy more ladies’ drinks.
Chong repeatedly told her – both privately and in group briefings – to do what the other girls were doing to pay off her “utang”.
She eventually had sex with a customer in a budget hotel.
The entertainer fled the flat at 5am on Oct 1, 2019 to avoid detection and went to a police station, aided by a passer-by who found her crying.
The total amount of profits in this case could not be determined.
The prosecution asked for 20 to 30 months’ jail for Chong and 24 to 34 months’ jail for Tan.
In mitigation, Tan said he did not make much profit, and instead made a loss every month and could not afford a defence lawyer.
He said he regretted what he did and was sorry for the people he hurt.
“I wish that during incarceration I will do much soul-searching and be a better father to my children. Never will I want to go into a business of this nature again,” he said, begging for mercy and leniency.
Chong said he had kidney problems and required dialysis, but the prosecution said it had informed prisons about this and they were equipped to deal with it.