SINGAPORE - An online vice ring pimp, who evaded $26,964.65 in income tax, has been jailed and fined for tax evasion and fraud.

Chew Tiong Wei, 38, a sole proprietor of social escort business Prestige Talents Management at Golden Landmark Shopping Complex in Victoria Street, pleaded guilty last December to two charges of tax evasion, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) said in a press release on Friday (Feb 12).

He also pleaded guilty to making false entries in order to obtain a Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) cash payout and PIC bonus of $24,000.

Chew was sentenced to six months' jail for each charge of tax evasion, and was ordered to pay a total penalty of $80,893.95, three times the amount of tax evaded.

He was also ordered to pay a penalty of $72,000, three times the PIC cash payout of $24,000 that he had wrongfully obtained, and sentenced to six months' jail.

Chew was first arrested in December 2014 for vice-related offences. He was subsequently found to have evaded income tax by under-declaring his income for the years of assessment 2012 and 2013.

He declared his profits for 2012 and 2013 to be $60,511, when it was actually $336,196. The tax undercharged amounted for both years amounted to $26,964.65.

In April last year, Chew submitted a PIC application form for purchasing a customer relationship management software system.

In the form, he declared that he had met the conditions of employing and making Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions for at least three local employees, and provided the particulars of his father, mother and wife.

They were never employed by Chew, but he had made CPF contributions into their accounts.

Chew later obtained a PIC cash payout of $9,000 and a PIC bonus of $15,000.

Chew was sentenced and jailed for more than seven years and fined $130,000 on Thursday (Feb 11) for his online vice ring offences. He had received nearly $2.6 million in revenue and earned over $1 million in profit over five years.

His online vice ring involved at least 22 prostitutes, 11 of whom were below the age of 18 at the time of the offences. The youngest was 15.

He also engaged in commercial sex with the underage females before prostituting them. His reason was that they needed to get used to the "whole feel" of dealing with customers, and he would give pointers and feedback.