A woman who ran a successful brothel has been ordered to hand over more than a quarter of million pound worth of profits.Guoyan Ma was found guilty of five charges of controlling prostitution for gain involving women aged between 35 and 49. The women were described as “the tip of the iceberg” and a court heard on Monday that 60-year-old Ma had benefited by a total of £274,866The Proceeds of Crime case had been listed for a full hearing but the benefit figure was agreed out of court as was the figure of £389,685 as her realisable assets. Liverpool Crown Court heard that her assets included her home and the premises used as the brothel, cash in five bank accounts and her car, a Toyota Yaris.Judge Neil Flewitt, KC ordered that she hand over the benefit figure within three months or face 30 months imprisonment in default.Ma, of Clarence Street, Padgate, Warrington, was sentenced to 18 months in prison suspended for two years and ordered to carry out unpaid work and rehabilitation activities after being convicted in July last year after a trial.The jury heard how the brothel provided an opportunity for Chinese women to earn money to remain in the country illegally. Ma, a naturalised British citizen, used mobile phone messaging applications to recruit women and then advertised their sexual services to men through flare messages written through the help of Google Translate.She would arrange for the women to travel to the brothel at Pyramid Court in Warrington town centre, where men would pay the women to engage in sexual activity. The regularity and volume of the business, which would see upwards of seven visits from men a day, was described as a ‘significant’ operation, with an expectation of ‘significant financial gain’, said Simon Parry, prosecuting.The court heard that cameras inside the property had been placed in the hallway facing the front door as well as the kitchen for Ma to see who was coming in and out of the address. There was also a variety of sexual paraphernalia in the bedrooms.A police surveillance operation in August and September 2019 recorded women who had been employed by Ma attending and leaving the property. She was arrested the following month at the brothel.When her mobile phones were analysed, messages dating back from 2014 to 2015 were found. These included some from her speaking to the women about weekly takings of between £2,705 and £3,135.
Daft, probably very daft, question. If she doesn't pay the £359k within 3 months and goes to prison, does she still owe it afterwards?
Recording everything is just the dumbest thing you could do. Basically just evidence against you.
Seems odd how can they determine it was indeed a "Brothel" and not a massage parlour?
If she stored the video and phone records since 2014 then there's potentially the details of:7 people a day x 320 days a year x 5 years before she was arrested = 11,200 puntersHow many of them used punting phones?It's really easy to do surveillance of these places. Just drop them a text making a booking. You get the address. You no show and then you sit there and watch for a day or two and see what happens. The entrance must have been visible from the street for the police to have watched the women coming and going. They may also have gotten reports from neighbours.
Interesting read. Reminds me of Lush Escorts business model in Birmingham. I wonder whether they are being targeted by the Police. The owners must have made a fortune and probably not declared profits. Trafficking cheap sex and have approx 12 girls working 12 hour shifts in their 4 apartments. Some of the reviews by Punters appear to insinuate substance use, coercion and exploitation of girls. They have recently tried to change work practices with higher pricing.
If more than one SP is working at the same location, then it's a brothel under the law especially if they're offering full service. Presumably the police must have sent someone in or contacted them to find out what was on offer and then they paid a visit in person and they must have found multiple SPs on site and the video footage must have confirmed multiple SPs working there at the same time. It sounds like this place brought attention to itself with the number of SPs and visitors per day.
And weirdly none of the people that were using Lush seemed to have had a problem with their work practices until they put their prices up by £20 an hour.
Agree you may be right - the price increase could have been a tactic to make them more reputable. Prior to the price increase and during transition, alot of young girls recruited who only lasted for approx 2 weeks or so before burnout. Examples - Anna, Bella, Stella. A number of Rom girls etc.
Just Googled that Warrington address. It's about 100 yards from the police station!
Lol they must have been watching out of their windows with a nice supply of hot coffee and donuts to hand.
