Brothel madam jailed for year

6:29am Tuesday 29th April 2008

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A former prostitute who ran brothels which earned more than £1m was yesterday jailed for 12 months.

Annabel Wise, of Church Road, Milton-under- Wychwood, ran a brothel at Middle Way, Summertown, Oxford, for almost four years in an operation a judge labelled "substantial".

Oxford Crown Court heard claims police had "turned a blind eye" to the brothel until residents started to complain.

Wise, 36, earned about £50,000 a year from the business, while the rest of the money was kept by the prostitutes working there.

The court heard Wise had previously run another brothel in Oxford for two years before leasing the house in Summertown in July 2004.

Peter Coombe, prosecuting, said Wise's brothels took in about £600 a day - with an estimated turnover of £1.27m over six years.

He said when police raided the two-bedroom house last November they found one client and three prostitutes, as well as a part-time receptionist.

Mr Coombe said: "The prostitutes were spoken to and it became perfectly clear that all of the ladies involved on that premises were there voluntarily.

"There was no suggestion or question of duress."

The court heard Wise was paid £30 for every client who visited the brothel.

Mr Coombe said Wise, who admitted keeping a brothel and money laundering, was described to the police as a good boss who cared about the prostitutes' safety.

He said: "There was a laminated menu which set out the services which could be provided and the prices."

After the raid, officers went to Wise's home and found £4,863 cash and documents relating to the brothel.

Tim Boswell, defending, said Wise ran the brothel to make money but also out of a genuine desire to protect prostitutes.

He claimed police knew about the brothel because Wise had reported concerns about a prostitute she believed was being forced into the trade by a pimp.

He added there was an armed robbery at a brothel Wise was involved with eight years ago and details of the business emerged during the subsequent investigation.

And he said officers had previously approached Wise to see whether she could help identify the body of a murder victim they believed worked in the sex industry.

Mr Boswell said: "This brothel was run for several years with the full knowledge of the police.

"Miss Wise's understanding was that the police would turn a blind eye as long as the brothel was not disturbing anyone and was not a place for drugs or illegal immigrants. It may be that she was lulled into a false sense of security by the police not prosecuting her at that stage."

Sentencing Wise to 12 months in jail for money laundering, with a two-month concurrent sentence for keeping the brothel, Mr Recorder Antonio Bueno said: "However this is dressed up, you were living off the earnings of prostitution and living a very comfortable lifestyle free of taxes.

"The amount of money which went through this brothel business was very substantial."

A prostitute's story

A former prostitute has spoken about working at the Middle Way brothel.

The married 24-year-old said she earned thousands of pounds and had sex more than 5,000 times during three years at the Summertown establishment.

The mother-of-one, known as Donna, said she started selling herself at 18 and worked at the brothel three days a week while holding down a part-time waitressing job and studying childcare at college.

Donna, who lives in Oxford, said: "My first ever client was an old man in his 60s who was brought along by his wife. She had a car accident and had lost all feeling down there.

"She said she knew he had needs and she would rather be in the next room having a cup of tea.

"We got all sorts - young men that were not very confident going out meeting women, and the ones who got a kick out of cheating on their wives."

Donna, who also worked at brothels in Reading and High Wycombe, has 10 GCSEs and a BTEC diploma. She was brought up in a loving two-parent family in an Oxfordshire market town.

She said the Summertown brothel was one of the best she worked at because the women's safety came first and there were regular drug and infection tests.

She added she would sleep with 10 to 15 men across a 12-hour shift - earning an average of £150 an hour.

Donna stopped being a prostitute about three years ago after meeting the man who is now her husband.

But she said: "I am not ashamed of it - I had fun, I learned and I met new people."