SINGAPORE - A 39-year-old man who set up his company to recruit girls for prostitution was sentenced to nine months' jail for vice offences on Monday (Oct 12).

Nicholas Kwek admitted to five of 16 charges, under the Women's Charter, of living on the immoral earnings of prostitutes, procuring women and conspiring with a 23-year-old to procure women for prostitution.

His co-accused, a woman, has been dealt with.

A district court heard that Kwek set up Baby Dolls Talent Agency and advertised for social escorts in various newspapers.

He would interview interested applicants, ask them to fill up an employment application and to sign an "agreement''.

After verifying the woman's age, he would brief her on her job scope, which included having sex with customers. Earnings were to be split equally with him.

When he was arrested in June this year, he had eight prostitutes working under him.

The court heard that he assigned the women working names. Two of the social escorts, aged 20 and 29, gave him half their earnings of about $5,000 and $1,200 respectively as commission.

In June last year, a 21-year-old woman approached the co-accused for help, saying she needed to help her ex-boyfriend to repay his debt of about $500.

The co-accused told her that she was working as an escort providing sexual services, and that she could introduce her to Kwek.

Subsequently, the co-accused approached Kwek and told him that she had two girls to introduce to him for work. The 21-year-old was offered a job by Kwek.

Kwek was a member of an online forum called Sammyboy and paid $500 a month to advertise the services of the girls working for him.

He would post these advertisements under a moniker "lovelygirls", listing the girl's age, race and physical measurements, and include a photograph.

Interested customers would send him private messages on the forum. He would contact these customers and arrange for a suitable time and location for sexual services to be provided. He received $14,400 in earnings from prostitution.

His lawyer Adrian Tan Wen Cheng said in mitigation that his client, a former contractor, had decided to quit the social escort business as a result of his newly-found Christian faith. He was about to wind down his business when he was arrested.

He could have been fined up to $10,000 and jailed for up to five years on each charge.