A 21-YEAR-OLD sex worker has been fined for allowing her Banbury home to be used for prostitution.

Neighbours spoke of their ordeal after Barbara Bicka was handed a £500 fine for allowing her terraced Orchard Close home to be used to sell sex.

She admitted working as a prostitute at the £700-a-month house along with an unidentified blonde woman last year. They have now left.

A neighbour in the cul-de-sac, who did not want to be named, said last night: “It was a nightmare.”

The mother-of-two teenage girls said visitors came at all hours, and added: “This is a sweet little close and it was awful. People were knocking on the wrong doors, my daughter was approached, it was horrid.”

And she hit out at the sentence, saying: “It just gives the message ‘come to this country, do what you like and we will give you a slap on the wrist’.”

One 24-year-old resident said: “It felt a bit seedy, seeing men walking up the street, knowing what they were going for.”

Mum-of-four Shanaz Begum said: “There were a lot of unknown people coming to this area which was not good for the families and kids.”

Mohamed Sheikh, prosecuting at Oxford Magistrates’ Court, said: “The property itself was being used as a brothel.

“Services were being advertised in The Banbury Guardian and individuals were attending the property for the purposes of paying prostitutes for consensual intercourse.”

Robin Harrison, defending, said Bicka and a blonde he named only as Dobromila worked from the house for two to three months. Bicka was arrested in May.

He said she lived in London after arriving from her home country of Poland and was invited to Banbury by a friend who lived in the town.

Bicka, now of Horspath Road, Oxford, admitted allowing part of the home to be used for the purposes of habitual prostitution.

Mr Harrison said in court that Bicka had £1,000 savings, adding: “She doesn’t work and she relies on the assistance of her father.”

Bicka previously denied a more serious charge of keeping a brothel, which was then dropped by prosecutors.

She was fined £500 on Friday and told to pay £85 costs and a victim’s surcharge of £15.

District judge Tim Pattinson gave her credit for a guilty plea, but then said: “Miss Bicka, I don’t know if you are chewing in court.”

Bicka apologised and removed the gum.