Published: 31 January, 2013
by ALICE HUTTON

FOUR people have been convicted of running a “high-class” brothel in Holborn which operated for five years less than 500 metres away from Camden’s police headquarters.

The multi-million-pound three-bedroom property in John’s Mews was filled with 10 prostitutes, mostly Eastern European and Brazilian women in their 20s, charging punters £300 an hour in cash or £390 by credit card, turning over nearly £1million of profit in just eight months.

On Friday a jury at Southwark Crown Court took just two hours to unanimously find Sorient Sigba, 54, guilty of running the brothel, three streets away from the multi-storey Holborn Police Station.

Accomplice Simon Earl, 58, of Chislehurst, Kent, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to the same charges of conspiracy to control prostitution for gain, and conspiracy to transfer criminal property of cash to the value of £946,776.

Michael Wallen, 50, of Hackney, also pleaded guilty to transfer of the same criminal property. Vera Fosuhene, 46, of Croydon, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of assisting in management of a brothel and supplying cocaine.

The four were arrested following an early morning police raid on October 18, 2011 after undercover officers from the Trafficking and Prostitution Unit (TPU) were offered sex and drugs in exchange for money.

Police combed through thousands of documents found at the rented mews building, which had operated without the knowledge of the landlord, demonstrating it had been running since 2006.

Recent accounts found on laptops and computers indicated the brothel had turned over £946,776 in the 26 weeks prior to the raid – police believe this could potentially have run into millions over five years.

Judge Jeremy McMullen QC said: “This was a conspiracy. The girls had to attend interviews beforehand and had to ask if they could have a day off.”