Married couple jailed for running brothel from rented Harrogate flat

A married couple who made more than £40,000 in six months by making women work as prostitutes in North Yorkshire have been jailed.
Fabiani Alvez De Souza, 42, and Gareth Derby, 53.Fabiani Alvez De Souza, 42, and Gareth Derby, 53.
Fabiani Alvez De Souza, 42, and Gareth Derby, 53.

Fabiani Alvez De Souza, 42, and Gareth Derby, 53, each received five years in prison after they made women from three different countries work in rented flats, which they turned into brothels, in Harrogate and Kings Lynn, in Norfolk.

North Yorkshire Police launched 'Operation Oasis' after officers visited a flat on Bower Road, Harrogate, on six separate occassions between October 2017 and May 2018, and spoke to five sex workers who were working there.

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Detectives found the couple were paying for the women to fly to the UK, from cities such as Lisbon, Amsterdam and Brussels, and then driving them to Harrogate before advertising them on adult websites.

The force said more than £40,000 had been deposited into their accounts over six months and there were several WhatsApp messages in which the couple discussed their illegal business and De Souza referred to herself as ‘the boss’.

In one message, sent in June 2017, De Souza told her husband there were “more than 10 women interested in working for us” but they needed to find another apartment to “make our business more profitable”.

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During one incident in September 2017, the couple picked a woman up from Manchester Airport in Derby’s work van, after she flew in from Amsterdam, and took her to a flat in Harrogate.

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De Souza paid for an advert to be uploaded the following day and over the next two weeks three cash deposits were made in Harrogate to her bank account, of £163, £600 and £1,045.

She was arrested at her home, in Walpole St Andrew in Norfolk, in August 2018 and officers found two women there who were working as prostitutes. Her husband, who was working abroad at the time, was arrested at a later date.

They were found guilty of modern slavery offences and sexual offences following a two-week trial at Leeds Crown Court in December.

De Souza was charged with eight counts of controlling prostitution for gain and seven counts of arranging or facilitating travel of another person with a view to exploitation.

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Derby was charged with two counts of controlling prostitution for gain and arranging or facilitating travel of another person with a view to exploitation. Both offences involved the same woman, who was the first to work as a prostitute in a rented flat in Harrogate.

The seven victims involved in the case are from Brazil, Portugal and Spain and aged between 26 and 60.

Detective Constable Leah Kitchen, of the Organised Crime Unit, said: “De Souza claimed throughout the investigation that she was just helping friends of hers who were working as prostitutes, while Derby repeatedly told the police that he was unaware of what was going on.

“The truth of the matter is that they, together, were operating an illegal business involving human trafficking and controlling prostitution for gain.

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“This considerable sum of cash was gained through the exploitation of seven vulnerable women in what amounted to modern day slavery.

“I’m very proud that North Yorkshire Police, with assistance from Norfolk Constabulary, have rooted out this activity and brought the offenders to justice.”