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SINGAPORE: During Phase 1 of Singapore’s reopening, when certain companies were still not allowed to operate due to COVID-19, a man opened his KTV lounge to customers.
Leow Keng Chun, 39, was fined S $ 12,000 on Thursday (November 5) after pleading guilty to three counts of failing to ensure his facility was closed to entry, supplying liquor within a control zone of liquor when unauthorized and provide public entertainment without a valid license.
The court heard that Leow was the occupant and operator of DRINKITUP, a KTV outlet in Jalan Besar. Police officers conducting compliance checks found Leow in the building at 11 p.m. on June 5 of this year.
Leow admitted that there were five other people on his KTV and yelled at them to open the door, but no one answered.
An officer proceeded to break a pane of glass next to the door and opened it, finding five people inside: three Singaporean men between 25 and 39 years old and two Vietnamese women between 19 and 24 years old.
Two of the men were customers who had reserved a room to sing and drink alcohol, who arrived at 9:30 p.m. that day and entered through the locked back door with the help of Leow.
The two women were hostesses waiting for the men in the room, while the third man was the main tenant of the building and was in another room at the time.
The two customers ordered towers of beer, drank, played dice and sang with the hostesses, intending to tip them S $ 200 each for their company at the end of the night.
Leow paid the third man the monthly rent. He knew he was not the licensee of the establishment and did not have a valid public entertainment or liquor license to operate it.
He also knew that the facility, classified as a non-residential facility, could not operate due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Despite this, Leow opened his salon for business as of June 2, 2020, took reservations and did not enforce the use of masks.
READ: Woman fined for allowing client to enter her salon for massage and masturbation during COVID-19 circuit breaker
The prosecutor requested a fine of at least S $ 13,000, referring to the case of Jin Yin, who was fined S $ 22,000 for similar offenses, including operating her beauty salon during the “circuit breaker” period and had provided services. illegal sex.
She said that Leow’s rape was more severe than that of Jin, where only one customer was present, as she allowed the two customers and the two hostesses to be together in the same room for an hour and a half before the police arrived. .
“No precautionary measures were taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among them and in fact they were singing and playing games very close to each other, which increases the risk of transmission of the virus,” said the prosecutor.
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