Phua Shewn Ying (left) and her husband Lim Teck Lee were both sentenced to jail on Jan 15, 2025. - Photo: ST
SINGAPORE: The mastermind of a vice syndicate, who lived on the earnings of six sex workers, was sentenced to a year and 11 months’ jail on Wednesday (Jan 15).
Phua Shewn Ying, 43, also known as Pan Xuanying, was also fined S$170,000. She will have to spend an additional 40 weeks behind bars if she fails to fork out the amount.
The Singaporean pleaded guilty to five prostitution-related charges under the Women’s Charter on Jan 13.
The women working for her provided sexual services on up to 1,005 occasions, with earnings totalling more than $264,000.
Phua initially operated alone after setting up the online vice ring in 2017.
Her husband, Lim Teck Lee, 45, who started helping her with the vice-related activities in 2022, was sentenced to 10 months’ jail on Jan 15.
The Singaporean man was also fined $30,000 and will spend an additional 15 weeks behind bars in default.
On 18 occasions between November 2022 and January 2023, Lim, who is also known as Lin Deli, transferred ill-gotten gains totalling more than $110,000 to a bank account, and helped his wife to live on the earnings of sex work.
On Jan 13, he pleaded guilty to two charges, including one count of dealing with the benefits of criminal conduct.
Two years after Phua started the vice business, a Malaysian agent known only as “Cynthia” introduced women based in Malaysia to Phua, the court heard.
Phua shared around half of her earnings from these sex workers with Cynthia.
Phua would typically advertise the services of Singaporean women, charging customers $550 to $750 per hour, and the Malaysian women’s services at $550 to $600 per hour.
After receiving bookings from interested customers, she would then arrange for available social escorts to provide sexual services to them.
Before working with Cynthia, Phua would meet the escorts to collect her share of their earnings in person.
While working with Cynthia, Phua would typically ask the escorts to transfer her share of their earnings into bank accounts which Cynthia had earlier provided.
Some time between 2020 and 2021, Phua asked Lim to help her obtain a bank account that the escorts could use to deposit her share of their earnings.
Lim agreed to help his wife. In earlier proceedings, Deputy Public Prosecutor Natalie Chu said that Phua did not wish to use their own personal bank accounts to avoid detection.
The couple were arrested in January 2023.
Phua’s bail was set at $15,000 on Jan 15, 2025, and she is expected to begin serving her jail sentence on Feb 12. - The Straits Times/ANN
