A 40-year-old Singaporean man, Abdul Rahman, was sentenced on 31 October to 3 years imprisonment, as well as an additional 71 days of jail time for breaching his remission order, after refusing to pay a prostitute after obtaining her services, according to Channel NewsAsia.
Rahman pleaded guilty to a charge of dishonestly obtaining obscene services from the woman, without the intention of paying her.
What happened?
The victim, a 35-year-old Australian woman who was in Singapore for a holiday, posted an advertisement for her obscene services, charging $700 per hour, and $750 per hour for “outcalls”.
She came to Singapore on 14 November 2022 and wrote on her website that she was “touring” Singapore.
Rahman then reached out to her on WhatsApp on 23 November 2022, at about 10 am, seeking to engage her services for himself.
The woman then agreed and she informed him of her hourly rates, but Rahman ignored her messages about the fees and discussed their meet-up instead, where they agreed for him to come over to where she was residing.
They then engaged in intercourse before the woman asked him for the payment of $700, but Rahman refused to pay her and told her that they hadn’t come to an agreement on her rates.
He then handed her a $2 note instead.
The woman then demanded the full amount but Rahman ignored her and left, and the woman then reached out to the Australian High Commission and Project X (a non-profit organisation for prostitutes) for help, as well as lodging a police report against him.
Rahman then erased evidence by deleting the messages from the victim where she told him about her rates, to make it look like they never agreed about her fees.
However, the full incriminating conversation was still available and visible on the victim’s phone.
The Repeat Offender
In court, the prosecutor highlighted how Rahman was a repeat offender who was previously convicted of a similar offence, and sought a jail term of 38 to 40 months for him.
He had, in a previous similar incident, also refused to make payment to another prostitute after obtaining their services.