Women who ran 'model' brothel spared prison

Judge Scott Wolstenholme told Monika Campbell and Lisa Gaskin at Leeds Crown Court there had to be punishment because they knew what they had done at the 133 Club in Dewsbury Road, Leeds, was illegal but he saw no need to jail them particularly as they would be facing "draconian" confiscation proceedings.

He heard the duo, who purported to be running a massage parlour, had kept accounts, paid income tax and rates, arranged for health advice and condoms for the women using the premises, who all worked there willingly, and that no drink or drugs were found when it was raided last year.

The judge said there was no exploitation, no nuisance to the public and if brothels were ever legalised "it may be the way you were running this business may be a model of how it should be done."

But he added: "The fact is, it is illegal. Parliament has not legalised brothel keeping. You knew it was illegal but carried on making a good living out of it and here you are now in the crown court."

Campbell, 38, of Vesper Gate Drive, Kirkstall, and Gaskin, 38, of Montague Avenue, Oakwood, both Leeds, admitted keeping a brothel between March 2005 and September last year and were each given a 12 months community order with 50 hours unpaid work.

Judge Wolstenholme told them the confiscation hearing fixed for September would mean they would end up "having all your realisable assets seized where appropriate".

Heather Gilmore, prosecuting, said the premises, which had front and back entrances and six parking places, were initially rented supposedly for a health spa in 2005 for 800 a month, which was increased to 1000 a month in 2007.

The rent was never in arrears and the rates were paid promptly. An accountant was instructed and income tax and VAT was paid when appropriate on the business which was regularly advertised in a national newspaper as a "luxury" massage parlour.

The duo also paid to have a website set up for the club which also received positive reviews on a West Yorkshire sex guide website and had received a certificate from a national sex guidebook.

Miss Gilmore said in January 2007 Inland Revenue officials visited the premises with police officers and women in low cut outfits were found. It was suspected a brothel was being operated but on that occasion only warnings were given.

The premises were raided again in September last year when three prostitutes were found there, some with customers in VIP bedrooms. One, a student, said she had taken up the sex trade to augment her grant, while another said she had up to eight clients a day.

The customers would pay a 5 or 10 door charge and the girls a fee. Accounts revealed gross takings over the four and a half years in operation of 483,777.

Derek Duffy, for Campbell, said in the past police forces had often turned a blind eye to such premises because it was considered better for women to work there with health advice than on the streets where many were drug addicts. But in 2006 and 2007 the Inland Revenue had visited many and indicated prosecutions could follow.