Love 'snares money wiz in vice ring'

Erin Chan and Michael Shum

A 35-year-old accountant who fell in love with a prostitute was recruited by a triad-controlled vice ring, after which he became one of its three masterminds, police said.

He was among 15 suspects - two men and 13 women aged 21 to 52 - rounded up inside two hotels, one motel and two unlicensed massage parlors in an anti-prostitution operation codenamed "Freshshoot" in Yau Ma Tei and Tsim Sha Tsui on Monday.

The three masterminds were the accountant, Choy, a 52-year-old local man and a 28-year-old local woman.

They were arrested for controlling persons for the purpose of prostitution, living on earnings of prostitution, aiding or abetting a person to enter Hong Kong illegally and possessing and using an identity card relating to another person, police said.

The remaining 12 were sex workers - one local and 11 mainland women aged 21 to 39. They were arrested for illegal immigration, taking employment after landing in Hong Kong unlawfully and breaching their conditions of stay.

All the suspects were detained for questioning last night.

Choy was a brothel customer earlier, police said. "The prostitute approached Choy to help her remit money to the mainland, as she didn't have a bank account in Hong Kong," police said.

"Later, he helped the prostitute to do so, and pocketed commissions throughout the process."

But he was later hired by the prostitution rind as a mastermind to help settle bills and remit proceeds from the vice transactions.

"The racket also solicited sex workers from the mainland, helping them to enter Hong Kong and booking hotel rooms for them," police said.

"It then sought customers for them via messaging apps such as Telegram, WeChat and WhatsApp, providing the sex workers with 'one-stop' assistance."

In the operation, police also seized HK$100,000 and 2,000 yuan in cash, many mobile phones, a batch of condoms, mouthwash and lubricants.

The commander of the Yau Tsim district special duties squad, Chan Hiu-yi, said the mainland sex workers arrived in between March and June.

Yau Tsim district operations commander Chan Chun-cheung said the sex workers did not undergo 21-day quarantines in the city, and would increase the risk of spreading Covid-19 when they had close contact with customers.

Last year, police and other enforcement departments arrested 828 illegal immigrants from the mainland - twice the figure in 2019. The government believed the surging figure was part of a rising prostitution trend in the city.