32-year-old former policeman gets 13 years' jail, caning for posing as pimp to trick teenager into having sex with him

SINGAPORE — A 32-year-old former police officer was on Wednesday (Nov 16) sentenced to 13 years’ jail and five strokes of the cane for duping a teenager into having sex with him and convincing her to become a sex worker, as well as a slew of other charges. 

Muhammad Nazri Sapar had pleaded guilty earlier on Oct 26 to 15 charges which include cheating by impersonation, extortion and transmitting obscene material by electronic means. 

Another 31 similar charges were taken into consideration. 

WHAT HAPPENED

In 2014, when Nazri was aged 24, he pretended to run a prostitution ring here, posing as different people to convince a 19-year-old woman to become a sex worker.

Nazri, who was married and working as a police officer at the time, created a Facebook account and would frequently change the account’s name and profile pictures.

After befriending the 19-year-old on Facebook, she told him that she needed money. He then suggested that she become a prostitute.

Nazri used three different names to pose as another prostitute, the purported boss of the prostitution ring and a purported pimp.  

The victim serviced 20 clients from November 2014 to April 2015 and was allowed to keep her earnings in exchange for sending him photographs and videos of her sexual engagements with her clients.

But when she stopped working as a prostitute, Nazri told her that she needed to have sex with him to properly leave the industry. She agreed to do so.

However, Nazri continued harassing the victim over email and threatened to post her compromising photos online. 

She then made a police report in April 2017. He was arrested in May 2018 after the police managed to identify him.

In another scheme, Nazri pretended to be a female lingerie consultant who was looking for a personal assistant.

He would ask the women who applied for the job to send photos and videos of themselves in G-string underwear. 

The victims were four women aged between 21 and 33. 

GROUNDS OF DECISION 

When laying out the grounds for his decision in regard to Nazri's sentence, District Judge Koh Keng Siong noted that the “harrowing experience had left an indelible mark” on the victim of the supposed prostitution ring. 

“In her victim impact statement, she stated that “whenever I passed by the place where he raped me, I will have flash back of the incident and will be traumatised”, the judge wrote. 

He added that Nazri being a police officer at the time of offence did not affect his sentencing decision. 

One’s position as a law enforcement officer would only be considered during sentencing when the offence was committed during the course of his duty or if one acted as an officer, the judge said. 

In response to TODAY's queries, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said that it had "swiftly initiated" investigations against Nazri, who held the rank of Staff Sergeant, after the offences were disclosed.

He was interdicted since June 4, 2018.

"Following his conviction on 26 October 2022, the SPF has commenced internal action against him," SPF said.

Anyone convicted of cheating by impersonation can be jailed for up to five years or fined, or punished with both.

For extortion, Nazri could have been jailed for at least two years and up to seven years, as well as caned.