Man posed as female prostitute and pimp to cheat woman into giving him sex, explicit photos and videos

SINGAPORE — Over a span of almost four years, Muhammad Nazri Sapar pretended to run a prostitution ring here, posing as different people to convince a young woman to become a sex worker herself.

However, this was all a ruse to get free sexual services and explicit material. He duped the victim into performing sex acts on him and threatened to upload her compromising photos and videos online, among other offences.

She once let him have sex with her only because she thought he would let her leave the purported prostitution ring.

Aside from this, Nazri tricked four other women into sending him lewd photos and videos of themselves by claiming to be a lingerie consultant.

When they applied to be his personal assistant, he made them go through a “selection process”, manipulating some of the women into looking for other potential victims.

On Wednesday (Oct 26), the 32-year-old Singaporean, who was married at the time of his offences from 2014 to 2018, pleaded guilty to 15 offences.

These included cheating by impersonation, criminal intimidation by anonymous communication, extortion, and transmitting obscene material by electronic means.

Another 31 similar charges will be taken into consideration for sentencing on Nov 16. The prosecution is seeking 11 to 13 years’ jail along with three to six strokes of the cane.

Nazri remains out on bail of S$25,000 in the meantime.

None of his victims can be named due to court orders to protect their identities.

TARGETED VICTIM FOR 3 YEARS

The court heard that Nazri began his purported prostitution ring scheme in 2014 when he was aged 24.

He created a Facebook account, frequently changing the account names and profile pictures but sticking to those belonging to Malay women. This allowed him to easily approach other Malay women without raising their suspicions.

He then added a 19-year-old woman — identified in court documents as A1 — on Facebook. When she confided that she needed money, he suggested that she become a prostitute and told her that “Nurul Huda” would contact her.

Nazri then contacted the victim over WhatsApp.

Posing as Nurul Huda, he told her that he worked as a prostitute under “Sabirah Abbas”, the purported boss of the prostitution ring, as well as “Hafiz”, the purported pimp.

A1 then sent her nude photos to “Hafiz”, thinking she needed to do this to join the ring. Nazri also got her to perform sex acts on him by posing as Hafiz.

Nazri continued posing as Nurul Huda, arranging clients for A1 and instructing her how much to charge. She serviced 20 clients from November 2014 to April 2015.

She was allowed to keep her earnings in exchange for sending Nazri photographs and videos of her sexual engagements with her clients. Nazri told her that her job scope included pleasing the boss and pimp of the prostitution ring.

When she stopped her prostitution activities, Nazri posed as Nurul Huda once more, telling her that Hafiz was disappointed and that she needed to have sex with him to properly leave the industry. She complied.

Over the next three years, Nazri turned to harassing the victim over email and threatening to post her compromising photos online.

He also said that he would tell her family or get her sister involved in prostitution unless she found new girls for him, became his mistress, sent him videos of herself having sex with other women, or became a prostitute.

When she failed to find new girls for him, she opted to be his mistress.

He remained unsatisfied and she eventually sent him lewd photos of herself, but he grew impatient and continued threatening her.

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

POSED AS LINGERIE CONSULTANT

As for Nazri’s second scheme, he used the moniker “Shahirah Malek” on Facebook, pretending to be a female lingerie consultant who was urgently looking for a personal assistant.

He claimed that the job was home-based with flexible hours and came with a negotiable starting pay of S$2,500.

When female applicants responded, he asked them to send photos and videos of themselves in G-string underwear. He avoided spoken conversations in order not to blow his cover.

He also claimed that he could tell how healthy a woman is by looking at their vaginal discharge, asking them to send him photos and videos of themselves and of their stained underwear. He also asked them to perform sex acts on themselves.

Four women aged between 21 and 33 fell prey to this scam. He pressed them to take the explicit material whenever he wanted, including when they were at work or on the way home.

When one of them — identified as A4 — initially expressed reservations about the job, Nazri created a group chat on Facebook Messenger comprising A4, himself and two other victims — A2 and A3.

He introduced A2 as his former personal assistant and instructed her to send obscene photos and videos in the group chat, in order to convince the others to do the same.

He also told the victims that they were about to get the job but that there were other candidates, so they would stop being reluctant.

When A4 eventually gave in, Nazri said that he wanted her to “set a benchmark” and promised to promote her to a supervisor role.

He further “tasked” A3 and A4 with finding other victims and asking for their compromising photographs. A3 and A4 were instructed to refer these women to him for consultation.

'EGREGIOUS, MANIPULATIVE'

On Wednesday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Lim Ying Min argued that Nazri’s culpability for his offences was at the highest level, describing his behaviour as “egregious, manipulative and predatory”.

“Not only did he act with clear premeditation and subterfuge, he showed no remorse or doubt whatsoever when going about his spree of offending behaviour,” the prosecutor said.

She also referred to an impact statement written by A1, who said that she would experience flashbacks whenever she passed the area where Nazri sexually assaulted her.

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

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