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GRATEFUL: Li, who ran a brothel in an illegal massage parlour, was fined $15,000. She said she could not find anyone to take care of her baby. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
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HER nine-month-old baby girl saved China national Li Chunmei from jail.
Convicted on charges of corruption, an offence which usually draws a jail sentence, Li, 40, got off with only a fine because the judge did not want her baby growing up in prison.
Li ran a brothel in an illegal massage parlour at the People's Park Centre between March and December 2006, collecting $100 a day from the prostitutes.
The business was registered under the name of Mr Low Soon, 57. She had paid him a total of $5,100 to take the rap for her.
Although she had been given three weeks to look for someone to take care of her baby, Li returned to court yesterday to say that she could not find anyone to do it.
She claimed that she was all alone here and seldom contacted her ex-husband, a Singaporean. Neither had she met any of his relatives.
Arguing that her child needed her, Li pleaded for a fine instead.
But Deputy Public Prosecutor Ravneet Kaur told the court that Li had rejected an arrangement by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports to take care of the child should she be jailed.
District Judge Jasvender Kaur said that sentencing a culprit when a baby was involved was very difficult and that raising a child in prison was 'not in the best interests of the child'.
Judge Jasvender said that asking someone to take the rap for a criminal offence in order to escape the consequences was a serious matter, and that a jail sentence was the norm.
'It is with a sense of mercy - not towards you, but towards your baby - that I have decided to take the exceptional step in light of the particular mitigation to impose a sentence which no doubt will be considered lenient but is within the range of reasonable exercise of discretion,' the judge said.
She fined Li $15,000: $3,000 for running the brothel and $4,000 each on three corruption charges.
Li could have been fined and jailed for up to five years on each charge of bribery. For the vice offence, she could have been fined and jailed for up to three years.
After paying her fine and leaving the court yesterday, Li said she was grateful to the judge for showing sympathy.
'I am very satisfied with the sentence. The judge realised the predicament I was in,' she said in Mandarin.
Her lawyer, Mr Tan Kay Bin, said that the court had been very merciful and lenient.
elena@sph.com.sg
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