SINGAPORE — Noting that a clear signal of denunciation from the courts was fundamental in commercial sex offences involving minors, a judge yesterday sentenced a mastermind of an online vice ring who had a bevy of underage prostitutes to 85 months’ jail and a S$130,000 fine.

District Judge Lim Keng Yeow said there were several aggravating factors in Chew Tiong Wei’s case, including the length of time he operated the prostitution business, the scale of his operations, the number of offences and the “very substantial” profits involved.

Chew, 38, started his vice business in 2007 by publishing advertisements in newspapers to recruit social escorts. After meeting applicants, he would persuade them to be prostitutes and proceed to arrange a semi-nude or nude photo shoot and post their details on an online forum. Between 2007 and 2008, he earned about S$20,000 to S$30,000 from these prostitutes.

Later, he registered a sham social escort business — Prestige Talents Management — and pocketed over S$1 million in profits between 2010 and 2014. His youngest recruit was 15 years old.

Yesterday, District Judge Lim said a deterrent sentence was needed to adequately protect teenage girls. The judge said the sad reality was some misguided minors may be willing to prostitute themselves for easy money.

“What is equally sad and indeed far more reprehensible is where mature adults, who really ought to know better, will readily draw them into the trade, be a corrupting influence to them and even become perversely enticed by their youthfulness and prey on their relative innocence,” he added.

In spite of how willing or seemingly mature the minors may be, District Judge Lim said adults who failed to show necessary circumspection and restraint in dealing with them will receive appropriately severe penalties. This principle applied to both pimps who recruited minors and customers who used their services, he added.

The judge also said that whether these offenders had intentionally targeted minors was irrelevant.

Chew was also slapped with a penalty of about S$153,000 for tax-related offences. He evaded income taxes by under-declaring his profit for consecutive years, and made fraudulent claims under the Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) scheme.

Chew’s sentence will be backdated to the date he was remanded, Dec 5, 2014. VALERIE KOH