SINGAPORE — For over four years, two men lived off the earnings of the women they recruited for their social escort agency, which also offered sexual services.

Last year, the long arm of the law caught up with them when police received a tip-off about their illicit business, and on Thursday (April 4) both were sentenced to jail and fined.

The mastermind behind the escort agency was Ong Ah Huat, who started the business in late 2013 with the help of an old acquaintance, Teo Sah Soon.

In 2014, they launched the social escort agency website MadamQ.

While no mention of sexual services were mentioned on the website, Ong, who is now 54, told Teo, 57, that the escorts would be required to provide such services if the clients requested.

Court documents showed that these escorts, whose ages range from 23 to 33, were either introduced to Ong by their friends, or came across MadamQ’s website on their own.

Teo’s main role in the operation was to maintain the website and update it with the profiles and photos of the escorts they recruited, but he would also sometimes accompany Ong to meet the recruits.

Ong collected a 40 per cent cut from payments made by clients to the escorts, who were a mix of Singaporeans and foreigners from Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan.

The assignments for the women took place in various hotels, as well as the homes of customers in Singapore.

Teo received a monthly salary of S$1,500, and a further commission of 5 per cent from the 40 per cent cut that Ong received for every successful booking.

According to court documents, Ong made a profit of S$71,490 from his illicit business over the span of four years, of which S$8,936 was paid to Teo in commissions.

Working on a tip-off, police officers conducted a raid at the Holiday Inn Orchard City Centre on Aug 2 last year and arrested a prostitute from Kyrgyzstan.

Investigations eventually led them to Ong, who was arrested the following day.

Court documents do not show when Teo was arrested.

Both men pleaded guilty to their offences last month.

The charges for both men included immoral earnings, operating a remote communication service for prostitution and procuring women for prostitution.

Ong also pleaded guilty to a charge of consuming a specified drug.

On Thursday, Ong was sentenced to jail for two years and five months and fined S$20,000, while Teo received 11 months' imprisonment and a S$30,000 fine.

Teo’s lawyer, Mr Singa Retnam, argued that Teo was down on his luck when he met Ong and had been bankrupt for 13 years after divorcing his wife sometime in 2000.

As part of the divorce settlement, Teo had to transfer all the shares he held in a company he managed to his ex-wife, and pay her and their two children a lump sum maintenance of over S$100,000.

Furthermore, Teo had had to give up his freehold landed property for his ex-wife and their children to live in.

The entire episode had left Teo financially drained, Mr Retnam said.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article said that Teo had been fined S$13,000. This is incorrect. He was fined S$30,000. We are sorry for the error.