Prostitute recruitment, bribery at heart of Hong Kong trial

Dec 16, 2008, 3:07 GMT

   Hong Kong - An alleged fixer for Chinese prostitutes was on trial in Hong Kong Tuesday, accused of claiming to be able to bribe consulate officials to speed up visas for women to work in Australia.

   Yeung Sum-ching, 40, was accused of telling an undercover policewoman that she was able to pay bribes to staff in the Australian consulate in Hong Kong to allow the officer to work in the sex trade in Melbourne.

   She was arrested in a police sting after advertisements were placed in Chinese newspapers in Hong Kong in December 2006 recruiting women 'to make quick money in Australia.'

   At the opening of Yeung's trial Monday, a court heard how she allegedly told the undercover officer that she could earn 480 to 800 Hong Kong dollars (62 to 103 US dollars) an hour working as a prostitute.

   She claimed to arrange daily flights to Australia for women going to work as prostitutes and to recruit both Chinese women and women from other countries, Hong Kong's District Court was told.

   Yeung, arrested at an arranged meeting where the policewoman was due to hand over travel documents, denied a charge of attempting to profit from prostitution.

   As part of the same police operation, a 34-year-old man was jailed for three years in November for trying to send two women undercover police officers to work as prostitutes overseas.

   He was arrested after advertisements appeared in newspapers reading: 'Make quick money overseas by being public relations officers in Japan, Taiwan and the United Kingdom.'

   Most prostitutes in Hong Kong, a wealthy former British colony with a population of 6.9 million, come from relatives poor provinces in neighbouring southern China.