By Ben Nadarajan, Assistant News Editor

FOR more than half a year, 'Ah Tiong' pocketed about $1,000 a month for doing absolutely nothing.

All the 62-year-old had to do was register himself as the owner of an aromatherapy business and rent a shop in Chinatown.

All registration fees and rental payments were borne by a China woman in her 30s, who was the real boss and who ran an illegal massage parlour in the shop.

Ah Tiong stayed home, and visited the shop every two weeks to collect his payout. His real work was to kick in only when the shop was raided by the police - he was to come forward and take responsibility.

As it happened, the shop was raided and seven China women were arrested for vice in March last year.

Ah Tiong took the rap for the vice activities. He was fined $2,500, but chose the default jail term of two weeks and five days instead of paying it.

In June this year, he was jailed another two months and ordered to pay a penalty of $6,000 for accepting bribes.

He told The Straits Times in Mandarin: 'I was broke then. I needed money. I thought I would not be so suay ('unlucky' in Hokkien) because there are so many massage places around. How can the police raid all of them?'

With the police clamping down on illegal massage parlours since the enactment of stricter laws in June 2006, those who run such establishments have become keener on finding someone to take the rap for them in case of raids.

This year, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) investigated 21 cases of fall guys for illegal parlours.

Five people have been convicted; other cases are still being investigated or awaiting court hearings.

High Court judge V.K. Rajah recently upped the punishment for a 39-year-old woman who paid a man to take the rap for running a massage parlour in People's Park Centre. Li Chunmei, who had a nine-month-old baby, was jailed two months instead of being fined $12,000 for corruption.

Justice Rajah said 'more muscular' punishments were needed, and similar culprits can expect to get six months in jail.

CPIB assistant director Sng Jin Poh, 53, said the trend of using a fall guy in illegal massage parlours is quite a recent one. 'Usually, such tua pek kongs get more business when the authorities start to clamp down on a certain crime.'

The term 'tua pek kong' is common underworld slang for those who are paid to take the fall for others. How the term, also the name of a Taoist deity, came to be used in this context is unclear.

In the past, the authorities' clampdown on illegal foreign workers fanned a big demand for tua pek kongs to pose as their agents.

In the 1990s, they were hired to 'own' pirated VCD shops, fixtures in suburban malls at the time often targeted by the police.

Evergreen illegal businesses such as gambling dens and brothels also always need hired scapegoats, as do those which sell counterfeit watches, bags and clothes.

Mr Sng said tua pek kongs are often hired from among the jobless or those doing odd jobs - in other words, those who need the money.

It is not clear how the real owners get hooked up to such individuals, although previous court documents of reported cases have mentioned shadowy middlemen.

The tua pek kongs know these men only by their nicknames, and coffee shops, karaoke lounges or bowling alleys are often the meeting places.

CPIB chief special investigator Lee Wei Chuan, 40, said the tua pek kongs usually use word-of-mouth through casual acquaintances to find 'work'; each tua pek kong can be the 'owner' of several establishments at a time.

The going rate is between $500 and $1,000 a month, he said.

If the shop is busted and the hired fall guy comes forward to be charged in court, he can either let the real boss pay the fine for him or take a 'special bonus' of several thousand dollars if he chooses to go to jail instead.

The size of the payout depends on the size of the outlet and whether the business is flourishing, said Mr Sng.

'This is easy money. All they have to do is sign some documents and then wait and hope that the massage parlour they own is not raided,' he said.

But taking the rap for another person carries a heavy punishment: The maximum possible under the law is five years in jail and a $100,000 fine.

Just a few weeks ago, Peter Lee Ming Fai, who was unemployed, was jailed for 22months for being the fall guy for two massage parlours in Geylang.

A CPIB spokesman said: 'It is illegal to assume criminal liability for someone else, especially when there is monetary reward. We take a serious view of this offence and will not hesitate to prosecute the parties involved.'

» Supervisor to the 'tua pek kongs'

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