Man called police after being swindled while trying to hire underage prostitutes

Amit Sharan was sentenced in the Wellington District Court for contracting underage girls for sex. Photo / Melissa Nightingale

A man who called the police on two girls who swindled him out of $200 has been sentenced for trying to hire them as underage prostitutes.

Amit Deo Sharan, 40, told police his victims, who were aged 13 and 14 at the time, had made threatening calls to him, and claimed he did not know them.

But when police called the girls to investigate the matter, they discovered Sharan had actually tried to hire them for sexual services.

He appeared in the Wellington District Court this afternoon for sentencing, having pleaded guilty to two counts of contracting a person under 18 for sexual services and an unrelated charge of having indecent communication with a child.

He was on bail for the indecent communication charge when he committed the other offences.

According to the summary of facts, Sharan had seen an ad saying “women looking for men, Lower Hutt” online, with the title “20 year old 2 girl for fun”.

The 13-year-old victim’s number was listed on the advertisement.

In August 2021, Sharan sent the girl a text asking if she was available for sex. She and the 14-year-old victim were together at the time and engaged in a text conversation with Sharan about the nature and cost of the service.

He then called the girls and made arrangements to meet up for sex, saying he would pay them each $100 for the hour.

Sharan asked the girls for their ages and was told they were 16 and 17 years old. He said he was still interested to meet them and they arranged to meet in Wainuiomata that same evening.

The group met at a car park behind the Wainuiomata Library, with the defendant in his van. He told the victims, who were standing outside the driver’s side window, that they were beautiful, and handed them each $100 cash. The girls took the cash and ran away without any sexual services being exchanged.

Their meeting was captured clearly on CCTV.

A few days later Sharan called police on the girls, claiming they had threatened him.

“Police called the victims and the above facts were revealed,” the summary said.

At first Sharan denied the allegations, saying he had never met the girls, but he later admitted paying them for sex.

He told police he asked the girls for their ID and that was when they ran away.

The indecent communication charge related to an incident in March 2021 when the 13-year-old victim was staying the night at his house.

Sharan sent the girl sexual messages on Facebook and sent a picture of his erect penis, telling her she could come into his room if she wanted to, Judge Stephen Harrop said.

The girl messaged her father to come pick her up, and said later in a victim impact statement she felt scared and trapped when she received the messages, and was paranoid when sleeping alone in her room.

In court today, Judge Harrop said he had received multiple letters of support for Sharan from friends and employers.

“You’ve done some bad things here, two bad things, as it were, but that doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. Obviously you have good qualities and they’re recognised by the people who know you and have given references,” he said.

He allowed discounts to the sentence for Sharan’s guilty pleas, good references, and the month he had already spent in custody.

Judge Harrop sentenced Sharan to six months of community detention with a 10pm-5am curfew, 150 hours of community work, and 12 months of supervision with special conditions, including that he not be allowed around children under 16 without approval and supervision.

He also added Sharan to the child sex offender register, saying he had “no hesitation” in concluding Sharan posed “a real and genuine risk to the lives and sexual safety of young girls”.