SINGAPORE: Although he did not have the money, a married man offered an Instagram acquaintance S$22,000 for sexual favours in a “sugar baby” arrangement.
He continued to persuade the woman and forged a bank transaction of S$25,000 purportedly credited into the woman’s account using Microsoft Word.
Liaw Jin Yi, 42, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years’ jail on Wednesday (Jan 31) for one count of cheating the victim of her sexual services on the basis that payment had been made.
Two other charges for forging bank documents and a sexual diseases test were considered in sentencing.
The court heard that Liaw became acquainted with the victim, a 24-year-old woman, in January 2020 after he sent her a message on Instagram.
He used a fake name “Trevor” and asked the victim to be his “sugar baby”. He offered her a monthly stipend of between S$8,000 and S$15,000 in exchange for sexual services under this arrangement.
The victim had not been in such arrangements before and declined his offers.
Liaw continued to proposition the victim in July 2020, increasing the proposed monthly stipend to S$22,000 for sexual favours.
He wanted to convince the victim that he was credible, so he offered her the contact details of a person whom he claimed was his former “sugar baby”.
HE POSED AS HIS OWN “SUGAR BABY”
In reality, he gave the victim one of his own contact numbers. When the victim contacted this number, Liaw disguised his voice and posed as a woman.
While posing as his own former sugar baby, Liaw vouched for his own credibility and tried to get nudes from the victim.
After this, the victim met Liaw to discuss his proposal. During the meeting, Liaw promised to increase the stipend to S$25,000 if the victim booked a hotel room for their next meeting.
Liaw also said he would transfer her the first payment before they met at the hotel.
The victim was jobless and had financial constraints, so she agreed.
Liaw never intended to transfer any money to the victim and he knew he did not have the money he promised to pay.
On Jul 25, 2020, Liaw sent the victim an image of a bank transaction showing that S$25,000 had been credited to the victim’s bank account.
He had used Microsoft Word to forge the transaction, and sent a photo of it to the victim on the Telegram application. He used a function that caused the image to disappear after a few seconds.
The victim checked her bank account repeatedly throughout the day, but the money was not transferred.
She expressed hesitance about meeting Liaw, and Liaw rebuked her for lacking trust in him, implying that she would run off with his S$25,000.
He promised that he had already transferred the money and that it would arrive in the coming days. He also complained that she had inconvenienced him as he had rearranged appointments to make the meeting.
That same day, the victim booked and paid for a hotel room, believing that Liaw had transferred her S$25,000.
They met at the hotel that day and had sex. The victim bought condoms and requested that Liaw use them.
Liaw did not pay the victim for her sexual services or the condoms, even though he had promised to do so, said the prosecutor.
Court documents did not indicate how the case came to light.
The prosecution sought at least three years and six months’ jail for Liaw.
He pointed to the victim impact statement, in which the victim said she was traumatised by the incident.
Liaw had also engaged in manipulative conduct and planned the crime, taking steps to evade detection.
In 2019, he was sentenced to three months’ jail for forgery, and his conduct appears to be escalating, said the prosecutor.
PROSECUTION OBJECTS TO DEFENCE’S LINE
He took issue with the defence’s mitigation plea, where they said the victim is “to a limited extent a contributory factor in this shoddy sexual encounter”.
Defence lawyer S S Dhillon withdrew this paragraph. He said his client has learnt his lesson and has cooperated with investigations and gone on to seek psychiatric help.
In his written mitigation plea, Mr Dhillon said that Liaw was experiencing marital conflicts with his Vietnamese wife at the time of the offences.
“As his sexual relationship with his wife was affected, he foolishly came up with the idea of contacting the victim and promising to pay a ludicrous sum of S$25,000 for her sexual services,” he said.
He asked for leniency, saying Liaw has a seven-year-old daughter and elderly parents.
District Judge Wong Li Tein noted the “significant planning” by Liaw.
“He went to great lengths to provide a fake sugar baby number, which actually belongs to him, posed as the sugar baby and then forged documents,” she said.
She said Liaw manipulated a much younger victim, who was in a vulnerable position. She agreed with the prosecution that Liaw’s conduct is escalating.
She allowed Liaw to begin his jail term on Feb 28.
