17 suspects arrested for online vice & prostitution
Posted: 18 June 2010 2310 hrs


SINGAPORE : Seventeen female foreigners were arrested during a joint four-hour operation at a budget hotel along Balestier Road on Thursday. Another was arrested for immigration offences.
More than 40 officers from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Tanglin Police were involved in the operation.
Preliminary police investigations indicated that some of those arrested had made use of the Internet to advertise their sexual services.
The police said investigations are ongoing and they are currently trying to track down the operators behind the vice activities.
Assistant director of the Specialised Crime Division, Superintendent of Police Goh Lam Kiong, said: "The police take a serious view of such syndicates which conduct their illicit businesses over the Internet and will continue our enforcement efforts against such vice activities...
"Any hotel operator who is found to have knowingly allowed such syndicates to operate in their premises will also be taken to task."
Under the Hotels Licensing Regulations, no licensee of a hotel shall permit any person who he knows or has reason to believe is a prostitute to occupy a room in the hotel or to frequent the premises.
A licensee who is convicted can be fined up to S$1,000. The court may also cancel or suspend any certificate of registration or licence granted under the Act.
- CNA/al