The Straits Times
SINGAPORE – Posing as a female teenager, a man offered two men, aged 19 and 21, sexual services but stopped communicating with them after he received money from them.

Kent Lim met the young men through a mobile dating app and had sent them photographs of attractive women he found online before offering to meet them for paid sex.

On Thursday, Lim, 24, was fined $2,000 after he pleaded guilty to two charges of cheating.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Sunil Nair said that Lim downloaded the dating app Heymandi, which allows users to create an account without a profile picture, in 2021.

After experimenting with the software, Lim posed as a female and chatted with male users.

On July 5, 2021, Lim began chatting with a 21-year-old man. He introduced himself as an 18-year-old girl.

The conversation topics became sexual in nature and both agreed to continue talking on messaging app Telegram.

Lim then offered to have sex with the 21-year-old in exchange for $250.

They agreed to meet in Eunos, where the 21-year-old lived at that time.

After receiving payment via Paylah! Lim deleted his Telegram chat with the 21-year-old and the messages he sent on Heymandi.

The 21-year-old realised he was scammed after he saw no trace of the conversations he had with the female persona Lim created.

Lim used the same ruse to dupe a 19-year-old man into transferring $300 to him.

When the man discovered that Lim had deleted their conversations, he made a police report.

In his submissions, Lim’s lawyer, Mr Benjamin Yam, noted that his client began using the Heymandi app to make new friends and had changed the gender on his account to female because he did not find many people to chat with.

Mr Yam, an associate director of Covenant Chambers, said: “When he did, he discovered that more people were initiating conversations with him.

“He was (then) approached by a number of men who queried about the availability of sexual services.”

Mr Yam added: “His mental faculties and self-control began to fail him and he decided to indulge such requests.”

Lim has since made full restitution to the two young men he cheated. He is currently unemployed.

Those found guilty of cheating can be jailed for up to three years, fined, or both.

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