SINGAPORE, July 21 — An 81-year-old man was fined S$18,000 (RM55,835) today for his second offence of running an establishment providing massage services without a licence.
Too Seng San’s business was busted during the circuit breaker period last year, when non-essential businesses were not allowed to operate due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Singaporean pleaded guilty to one charge each of illegally running a massage establishment and failing to prevent his employees from providing sexual services to customers.
He was fined S$15,000 for the first offence and S$3,000 for the second.
Two other charges, including breaching Covid-19 laws by allowing a customer into his shop, were taken into consideration for sentencing.
The court heard that Too was the sole owner of Tai Kang Yang Sheng TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) Therapy.
He had an exempted massage establishment licence at the time. This meant that he could not set up rooms, partitions, cubicles or other forms of separation that allowed massage services to be administered in private.
Too ran his business from a ground-floor Housing and Development Board (HDB) unit at Block 201, Hougang Street 21 but it has since ceased operations.
He hired four female Chinese nationals, aged between 33 and 42, to be masseuses.
On April 17 last year, an unidentified woman contacted the police and reported that it was her second or third time calling them.
She added: “I believed that this massage parlour is operating despite this circuit breaker period. I saw few customer been coming in and out of the shop through the rear entrance. Can send police now.”
Later that afternoon, police officers conducted a check at Too’s business and found three rooms with curtains installed, each with a massage bed.
Investigations revealed that a 32-year-old man, identified in court documents as Samuel Cheow, had entered the establishment through a back gate and asked if massage services were available.
One of the masseuses replied in the affirmative and led him to a shower. When he was done, she massaged him in one of the private rooms and offered him masturbation services for S$100.
Police officers arrived after she provided him these services.
Too was later found to have operated another illegal massage outlet, named Kang Le Yang Sheng TCM Therapy, at Block 115, Aljunied Avenue 2 in September 2019.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Sean Teh sought the fine imposed, noting that Too was fined S$10,000 in July 2019 for similarly running an illegal massage parlour. This meant he was liable for enhanced punishment.
Back then, he ran Monte Aesthetic at 450 Sims Avenue. A masseuse had offered masturbation services for S$80 to a customer.
In mitigation, his lawyer Chiang Wan Ting told the court that imprisonment would be “unfairly harsh” on him and that he was “past the normal life expectancy of a man in Singapore”.
As a repeat offender, he could have been jailed for up to five years or fined up to S$20,000, or both, for providing massage services without a licence.
He could also have been jailed for up to two years or fined up to S$10,000, or both, for failing to ensure his employees did not provide sexual services. — TODAY
