For months, the authorities remained puzzled over why they couldn’t identify a female suspect, who racked up bills that amounted to $51,250 in expenditure via multiple stolen credit cards.
It finally dawned upon them that the suspect was simply a cross-dresser. 31-year-old Nur Alya Sefira Mohd Hadim had dressed up as a woman and worked nights at Orchard Tower as a social escort — his customers would end up as victims in his credit card fraud spree.
Managing to evade arrest for 11 months (because, you know, cops were looking for a woman), Alya was finally arrested in June 2015 in a surprise raid on his home. Yesterday, he received a sentence of three years in jail after pleading guilty to 17 of the 187 charges against him for theft and cheating, Channel NewsAsia reports.
Say what you will, but Alya seemed to be a pretty adept con artist. During his time working the Four Floors of Whores, he stole credit cards from the many revellers who engaged his services. A mainly international clientele meant that his victims included the likes of Irish, Danish, French, British, Australian, Finnish, German, Swedish and American men.
Alya’s biggest victim, however, was his own doctor who supplied him hormone injections. Seventy one successful transactions totalling $12,271 were from the 68-year-old doctor’s credit card alone, which was pilfered by Alya during a visit.
The credit cards stolen were used to fund his daily expenses and luxury shopping sprees, which included purchases of gold jewellery and mobile phones. They would then be pawned or sold for cash.
In court, the prosecution stated that Alya had planned his crimes in such a way that he was undetectable, pushing for at least three years in jail.
Surprisingly, this wasn’t the first time he pulled off crimes in his cross-dressing days. Back in 2012, he stole ATM cards, cash and phones from customers and did 18 months in jail.
