Thai sex workers jailed for fleecing elderly men of $250,000

Thai sex workers Pornthip Phonkoed, 63, (left) and Nualpan Coxon, 67, have been sentenced for defrauding several men of around $250,000. Photo / Belinda Feek

Two Thai sex workers have been jailed for fleecing three elderly men of more than $250,000.

Nualpan Coxon, 67, and Pornthip Phonkoed, 63, both of Auckland, appeared slightly shocked in the Hamilton District Court this afternoon as Judge Stephen Clark sentenced them to different jail terms after a jury found the pair guilty of fraud charges in February.

Two of the victims, aged in their 80s and 70s, responded to "adults only" advertisements in newspapers for massages with a "happy ending", while the third victim met one of the women in a gold shop.

After providing services to two of the men, the women then set out about taking money from them, making misrepresentations about what the money was needed for.

In sending Phonkoed to jail for two years and 10 months, Judge Clark said apart from her previous good character he had no other information to make any further discounts.

But Coxon, through her lawyer, Russell Boot, submitted a doctor's letter about her ill health and a Salvation Army statement about her gambling addiction, along with $20,000 in reparation to be paid within 28 days.

In jailing her for two years and two months, Judge Clark said a Section 27 cultural report found her to be an intelligent woman but it was unable to provide a causal nexus of the offending, ie a link between the most probable cause and its resulting effects, which he described as "repetitive".

However, he noted an "interesting" comment in her pre-sentence report in which Coxon stated her behaviour with the victims was "normal in Thailand".

'They made my father feel like a fool'

The daughter of one of the victims said her father spent his last day alive giving a statement to police about how he lost $13,900 between August 17 and September 15, 2017.

She told the court how it was "truly horrendous" how Coxon and Phonkoed preyed on her father in his dying days.

"They were shameless and it was disgusting ... it was a living nightmare.

"My father was so manipulated by their lies, he threatened to disinherit me and disown me."

She said they left her father "feeling like a fool".

"These women humiliated my father ... they stole a lot of money from him, they stole time and energy away from him in his last months of life.

"My father made a statement about this to police on the last day before he died. That was the last conversation he had with anyone. These women took a lot of money from him but it's the time that we lost that I grieve for," she said choking back tears.

'Serious offending against vulnerable people'

Crown prosecutor Rebecca Mann said the women's offending was serious and committed against obviously vulnerable individuals.

She said contrary to the defendants' counsel submissions, the premeditated nature of their offending was self-evident and their modus operandi remained the same with all three.

The victims' feelings of shame and embarrassment were only natural given they felt duped by the women after falling for their deception.

"Having entered into transactions for the early stages of the friendship, they then stopped charging money for the sexual acts ... and that of course is consistent with this ruse of an established friendship.

Thai sex workers Nualpan Coxon, 67, (left) and Pornthip Phonkoed, 63, (far right) were jailed for defrauding three elderly victims of more than $250,000. Photo / Belinda Feek

"There was an element of shame and embarrassment in what occurred ... having succumbed to the scheme that was advanced."

She urged Judge Clark to take a starting point of prison terms of between three years and nine months and four years.

'It was simply a situation between a sex worker and a client'

Coxon's counsel Russell Boot told Judge Clark there's no way the Crown would have been successful with its case if it laid all of its charges individually.

Instead, the accused faced seven representative charges and were found guilty on five of them. To find a person guilty it only had to be accepted that one of the many transactions was deceitful.

"It would be my submission that you wouldn't be satisfied that all and every one of those involved a lie or specific deception," Boot said, adding that the judge should be guarded against using the $252,200 figure for sentencing.

He added that their offending "wasn't a sophisticated enterprise".

"They were answering ads in the newspaper ... money was asked for and money was given.

"It's being directed to an account that can specifically be linked to Ms Coxon."

He said this was simply a situation "between a sex worker and a client".

He added that although the victims were elderly, his client was 67 and the disparity in age was not significant.

Through the sale of her mother's home and other property, Coxon was also able to provide $20,000 in reparation for the victims, he said.

Boot urged Judge Clark to issue a sentence of home detention.

'It's not that serious; they accept they acted stupidly'

Phonkoed's lawyer Rob Quin agreed with Boot's submission, and stated "the case is not as serious as the Crown make out".

"There was no relationship of trust between the defendants and the victims, given the nature of their relationship.

"The vulnerability of the victims as well is not as extreme as the Crown make out.

"These were fairly smart men and two of them accepted that they had acted stupidly."

It was his client's first time before the court and she was assessed as being at a low risk of reoffending, he said.

'I'm not a bad person'

After counsel submissions, and before handing down his sentence, Judge Clark took a brief adjournment.

Phonkoed told Open Justice, who she was sitting next to, it would be "unfair" if she was sent to jail because she hadn't done anything wrong.

She had been working for her clients, not only sexually, but as well as providing everyday assistance including washing their hair - or more personal areas.

"It wasn't nice. It was very hard work," she said.

Asked if there was always a happy ending, she replied, "yeah, happy ending".

Asked if she was scared about the prospect of going to prison, she said she didn't know because she "hasn't done anything wrong".

However, she said if she ever won Lotto she would pay the men back because they were her friends and nice people.

"I'm not a bad person," she said.

Phonkoed said she lived alone with her two cats but she would have to message a friend to feed them if she was put behind bars.

'There were a multitude of lies told'

Judge Clark primarily accepted the Crown's submissions and said this was a case "where various lies were told over a period of time".

"There were lies about needing money for immigration, to help others with immigration, to get Japanese students in the country.

"There were a multitude of lies told over a period of time and I have little difficulty determining that the majority of the money was based upon repetitive lies and deceit other than perhaps an amount paid for sexual and massage purposes."

He said the women took advantage of the victims' "old-fashioned" nature and naivety.