Jail sentence and fine for football bookie

[Terry Bogard]

Jail sentence and fine for football bookie

AsiaOne
Wednesday, Aug 29, 2012

SINGAPORE - An assistant engineer was sentenced to two months' jail and a $167,000 fine for betting on football matches with an illegal bookmaker.

Shen Yaoping, 28, also accepted bets amounting to $36,500 from friends and former army buddies in June and July 2010 for World Cup matches and other football games in Australia, Europe, South America, United States and Japan.

According to The Straits Times, his Punggol flat was raided by the police on July 8, 2010.

He pleaded guilty on Aug 6 to 24 charges for acting as a bookmaker and up to 21 charges of illegal gambling.

Shen will serve five months and three weeks in jail as he is unable to pay the $167,000 fine.

A district court heard that an illegal bookmaker Lau Meng Howe, 30, started two betting account for Shen with a credit limit of $2,000.

After half a year of betting, Shen started introducing his friends to bet with Lau.

In May 2010, he started managing five betting account for Lau. He got 60 per cent of the profits made from these accounts.

Lau was jailed eight months and fined $300,000 in April.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Goh Yi Ling asked for a harsher sentence for Shen but his defence counsel Kertar Singh pointed out that Shen's bets came up to $36,500 compared to Lau's which amounted to more than $638,000.

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