The Asian Commercial Sex Scene - S$24,000 fine for recalcitrant TCM practitioner who ran unlicensed massage outlets

By Alfred Chua

Published: 7:45 PM, June 16, 2017

SINGAPORE — A Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner was fined S$24,000 on Friday (June 16), having run a network of unlicensed massage establishments, with some offering sexual services.

Goh Seng Ngei, 64, had earlier pleaded guilty to 24 charges under the Massage Establishments Act, for not having a valid licence to offer and provide massage services. Another 33 charges under the same act were taken into consideration during sentencing.

The court heard that Goh was the owner and operator of various beauty and TCM outlets that were raided by the police, and the violations were from October 2013 to this month.

The female masseuses employed in these outlets — in locations such as Chinatown, Fortune Centre, Thomson Road, and Haig Road — were also not registered as TCM physicians, nor did they have the relevant practising certificates.

The women were caught providing massage services to male customers at most of the outlets, which were not licensed to offer such services. One outlet was also found to be advertising massage services, when it was not licensed to do so.

The court heard that some of the employees offered sexual services to their male customers, but most of these customers rejected it. During one particular raid on July 9, 2014, police officers found one female masseuse about to have sex with a male customer.

In mitigation, defence counsel Gopalakrishnan Dinagaran urged the judge to take into account his client’s early plea of guilt.

Asking for leniency in sentencing, Goh said, through his lawyer, that he needed money for medication, and for his wife.

That cut no ice with District Judge Samuel Chua, who meted out a S$1,000 fine per charge, the maximum penalty for flouting the Act.

In 2014, Goh was convicted of similar charges and fined S$800 per charge then. District Judge Chua said that Goh was “undeterred despite the raids… time and time again”, and noted that the women employed in the outlets “had frequently offered sexual services”.

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