Singapore man jailed more than 3 years for printing fake cash to pay sex worker

Unable to pay for sexual services, a father of seven children turned to printing fake dollar notes to help him offset the cost.

Feroz Akthar Hussain’s crime was later uncovered when the social escort he hired tried to pay for her laundry bills using the “cash” he gave her, and he then fled Singapore in the engine compartment of a bus to avoid prosecution.

When he returned to Singapore some time later, he was arrested.

On Friday, the 41-year-old Singaporean was sentenced to three years and six weeks’ jail after he pleaded guilty to a charge each of using counterfeit currency and of failing to produce his passport to an immigration officer.

Two other charges related to the forgery of the notes and another for skipping bail were taken into consideration for his sentencing, which was backdated to January 5 this year, the day of his arrest.

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Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Lee Da Zhuan told the court that Feroz’s offences took place on the night of December 28 last year.

Working as a bus driver at the time, he was intending to engage a 24-year-old social escort from the Philippines for sexual services that night, but he was unable to afford it.

So he decided to photocopy a genuine S$50 note and printed it with an inkjet printer, which allowed him to create four copies of the counterfeit notes.

Court documents showed that three of the notes bore the same serial number.

Using these fake notes, Feroz was able to offset the cost of one hour of sexual services with the social escort at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront hotel along Havelock Road, which cost him a total of S$350 (US$263).

A few days later, on December 31, the woman tried to use two of the fake notes to pay for her laundry bill at the Mercure Singapore on Stevens hotel near Orchard Road.

The front office manager of the hotel “strongly suspected” that the notes were fake and told the woman to wait at the lobby, DPP Lee said.

The manager then called the police.

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On January 4 this year, at around 1.40am, Feroz tried to flee to Malaysia to avoid prosecution. This happened while he was out on bail. The prosecution did not specify what exactly Feroz was being prosecuted for at the time.

In getting someone to help smuggle him into Malaysia, Feroz withdrew S$1,900 (US$1,432) from an automated teller machine and took a taxi to the Hougang Heavy Vehicle Park.

There, he asked for his colleague, who was identified in court documents as just “Din”.

Din agreed and the trip took place at around 7am.

By hiding himself in a small space behind the bus engine, Feroz was able to cross the border at the Tuas Checkpoint without being detected.

However, he returned to the same checkpoint on January 5 at around 1.35pm without his Singapore passport. It is not known why he returned to the city state.

He was arrested after he confessed to officers from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority that he was wanted by the Singapore Police Force and that he had crossed into Malaysia illegally.

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In seeking a lighter sentence, Feroz, who appeared in court through a video-link and was not represented by a lawyer, pleaded with District Judge Brenda Chua to give him a chance because he has seven children.

The judge noted that Feroz had similarly submitted a written mitigation letter that also stated that he had a mother who was unwell and a wife who was not working.

“This is your first crime, and this is your last crime, did you say that?” the judge asked and Feroz acknowledged that.

District Judge Chua then told him that offences relating to counterfeit currency notes “are of a serious nature”.

As the judge’s sentence was translated into Malay for Feroz, his face scrunched up and he started choking on his tears.

At one point, he covered his mouth with his hands before looking towards the ceiling and mumbling to himself. He was later heard giving an anguished cry.

For using counterfeit notes, Feroz could have been jailed up to 20 years and fined.

For failing to present his passport to an immigration officer, he could have been fined up to S$1,000 (US$754) or jailed up to six months, or both.