Two
women who ran a brothel which earned almost £500,000 were told by a judge that
it was a model for how such a business should be run if it was ever made
legal.
Monika Campbell and Lisa Gaskin ran the 133 Club in Leeds under the
guise of a luxury massage parlour between March 2005 and September last
year.
Leeds Crown Court heard that the pair were meticulous in their
running of the business keeping accounts, reliably paying income tax and
rates and arranging for health advice and condoms for the women using
the premises.
Sentencing the pair, Judge Scott Wolstenholme said that there was no
exploitation of the employees or nuisance to the public and if brothels
were ever legalised it may be the way you were running this business
may be the model of how it should be done.
However, 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.
The judge said that he did not see the need to jail them,
particularly as they would be facing draconian confiscation proceedings
and they were given a 12-month 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.
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