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.
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