A CHINESE prostitute thought to have been a victim of human trafficking has been rescued after police swooped on 12 brothels in Oxfordshire.

The woman was taken away by specialist officers from a brothel in Oxford as part of an eight-week operation run by Thames Valley Police.

In total, four women believed to have been trafficked into Britain from foreign countries and forced to work as prostitutes were rescued from 43 brothels across the force during Operation Pentameter.

In Oxfordshire, officers visited 19 suspicious premises 12 of which turned out to be brothels and spoke to 18 prostitutes from 12 different countries. Most were from Thailand.

At one address in Oxford, £8,000 was seized in connection with a swoop at a brothel in South Buckinghamshire.

Thames Valley Police said officers posed as customers and visited premises with specialist victim liasion officers, instead of taking the usual course of raiding brothels and arresting anyone in sight.

The force ran the operation as part of a national campaign aimed at tackling human trafficking and the illegal exploitation of victims.

PC Kim Gibbens, from the force's Public Protection Unit, who was the operation's lead victim liasion officer, said: "If a woman has been coerced into these circumstances there are a host of obstacles which could prevent her from telling agencies, such as ourselves, anything which could help us identify the true nature of her situation."

Each prostitute was spoken to separately by officers, who assessed the women for signs that they might have been working in brothels after being trafficked.

No one was arrested, but police said details of brothel managers and clients had been recorded and would be followed up in the future.

Assistant Chief Constable Francis Habgood said: "This operation was unique in its approach it is the first time the force has carried out visits, rather than raids."