GN Rajwant Singh, who had claimed trial, lured Singaporean women to Malaysia to trick them into committing sexual acts with him, CNA reported.

He was charged with committing the offences between 2018 and 2020, when he was unemployed and living with his wife and children in Malaysia.

Rajwant would pose as a Caucasian man named Mike on dating platforms, pretending to be successful and “living on a yacht”, while offering victims money in exchange for sex and their companionship.

Victims were then pressured into sending lewd pictures or videos of themselves before Rajwant invited them to come to Penang. A total of 16 women had fallen prey to him.

Upon their arrival in Malaysia, he would pretend to be a driver for “Mike” and try to befriend them by claiming he was also being threatened by “Mike”.

This is said to have enabled him to determine whether to threaten the victim or appeal to them for money on compassionate grounds.

In some cases, he threatened to spread lewd videos of the victims if they did not transfer money to him or gratify him in other ways.

Rajwant extorted over S$183,000 from one of the victims to force her to have sex with him and to prevent him from spreading the lewd videos she had sent to him.

The victim, who testified in court, said she was also forced into sex work, with Rajwant choosing the clients and collecting all the money.

Rajwant was arrested in a joint operation between the Singaporean and Malaysian police and hauled to the city-state to be charged.

There, he gave detailed confessions on how he had committed the offences, admitting that he had sex with the victims and saying he needed the money to cover his family’s expenses.

However, when charged, he denied posing as a sugar daddy and extorting the victims.

Deputy public prosecutor Jeremy Bin urged the court to sentence Rajwant to 13 years in jail and 15 strokes of the rotan.

Rajwant will be sentenced in January.