Singapore police raided massage parlours, located at Circular Road, Duxton Road, Gemmill Lane and Kitchener Road. They arrested four women from those outlets on Thursday, May 3.
Police said in a news release on Saturday that they arrested three women for offences under the Women's Charter. The third woman was arrested for managing a place to communicate with a woman for the immoral purpose. The statement said that all those four women were aged between 34 and 57.
Reports said that when the local police conducted raids in four different outlets, they found that while two of the parlours were operating without valid license, another one was found to have breached the licencing conditions.
Police will take actions against the operators of these massage parlours under Massage Establishment Act and if they found guilty, then the first-time offenders may be finned with maximum S$10,000 or a jail term up to two years or both. Repeat offenders can face a jail term up to five years or a fine up to S$20,000 or both.
The release also stated that police can close the unlicensed massage parlours and those who breached the conditions of licensing Act could be fined a maximum of S$15,000 or maximum a three-year of imprisonment or both.
Police said that these actions against those massage parlours will prevent recalcitrant unlicensed massage establishment operators from blatantly overlooking the law, while court proceedings against them are going on.
In addition, police said that landlords of those parlours will be notified when their tenant has been charged in court for operation unlicensed outlets and once the tenant is convicted, the landlord will be asked to take the possession of the place within a month.
Police also clarified that if any landlord fails to follow the process, he or she may face a maximum S$10,000 fine or two years of imprisonment or both and repeat offenders can face a jail term up to five years or a fine of up to S$20,000 or both.
Earlier, police conducted a three-day operation on public entertainment outlets, including unlicensed massage parlours in March 2018 and arrested three women aged between 27 and 35 for committing offences under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act and the Women's Charter.
In the same month, a total of 10 women were nabbed for violating Women's Charter and Employment of Foreign Manpower Act and police officers found 14 parlours, which were running without a valid license.
