Man who posed as cop to cheat prostitute of more than $15,000 jailed
A man who impersonated a police officer along with two accomplices and cheated a prostitute of more than $15,000 was on Thursday (29 November) jailed for 14 months and two weeks.
Liu Aik Kang, 25, earlier pleaded guilty to one charge of cheating by impersonation and one count of theft in dwelling. Two other charges of theft in dwelling were considered in sentencing.
Liu, his cousin Hu Zhihao, 26, a former navy officer, and Tan Shi Feng, 29, who was a navy regular at the time, hatched a plan to cheat prostitutes by pretending to be cops. They assumed such victims would be less inclined to make police reports.
Tan found the victim online and made an appointment to visit her apartment in Balestier.
On 23 June, at about 11.40pm, the trio arrived at the woman’s unit and carried out their scheme. Hu held out a video camera during the act to make the “police raid” appear genuine.
The trio told the woman that they suspected her of conducting illegal activities and needed to conduct a search of her flat. Believing them to be real policemen, she allowed them to seize items from the unit.
The men made off with $15,000 in cash and an iPhone valued at $600. They split the cash and threw the iPhone away after smashing it.
The incident was reported to the police the next day. Hu and Liu were identified through CCTV footage and arrested the same day. They provided Tan’s identity to the police and he was arrested that evening.
Only $3,050 was recovered from Tan. The rest of the money had been spent.
At the time of the crime, Liu was out on bail for stealing from a nightclub performer’s flat.
His cousin Hu had recruited him to steal from the performer. Hu had found out that the performer did not lock his flat whenever he was out.
Between 1am and 2am on 16 May, Hu and Liu entered the man’s flat in search of items to steal. They eventually made off with $8,000 worth of items from three different victims – all residents of the flat. These included a laptop, Canon camera and its accessories.
Two days later, Hu told Liu that the nightclub’s bouncer had obtained CCTV footage of them entering and leaving the flat.
Liu surrendered himself to the police on 24 May and was released on police bail the same day.
For cheating by personation, Liu could have been jailed for up to five years and fined.
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