Multi-million pound Heathrow sex slave gang face jail

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A gang which brought hundreds of young Malaysian women to be sex slaves in upmarket London brothels face jail.

The multi-million-pound racket, which ran for two years, saw more than one woman a week sold into prostitution at Heathrow's Terminal 3.

Many of the women, aged 18 to 24, were tricked into coming to Britain with the promise of jobs.

But they were met at the arrivals lounge by a gang member who seized their documents and drove them to a brothel where they were forced into prostitution the next day.

They had to have sex with more than 600 clients - businessmen paying £100 a time - over three months to win their freedom.

One victim believed she was going on a sightseeing trip to London with her new boyfriend who was in fact one of the gang's couriers. He sold her for about £2,500 and returned home with the cash.

The network was run by a Vietnamese ringleader and his 25-year-old Malaysian wife who lived a lavish lifestyle and paid up to £10,000-a-month rent on each brothel.

The addresses included a penthouse in Avenue Road, the most prestigious area of St John's Wood, a house with a swimming pool in Campden Hill Gardens, Notting Hill, and a Hyde Park townhouse, streets from Tony Blair's £3.6 million Connaught Square property.

The Met's Clubs and Vice Unit smashed the network after one victim tipped off police. Detectives rescued her from one of the brothels and launched a five month surveillance operation.

They discovered a sophisticated racket had been set up in Malaysia and the UK. Couriers would attract the victims, often through newspaper adverts for cleaners or maids, and buy return tickets for them.

When they arrived they were taken to a brothel and told they had to pay off a "debt-bond" of around £3,000.

All the money they earned from clients went to the bosses. They had to pay rent and were also fined half their day's wages if they did not abide by strict "houseî rules.

They were expected to work 12-hour days beginning at 6pm. With up to 20 of them in one brothel, many slept on the floor or the same beds they worked in.

They could only leave the house if escorted by a gang member and had to return by a certain time. They were also fined for taking a client's mobile phone number or dating a customer.

On average the women would take three months to pay off their "debtî - sleeping with around 50 clients a week - after which they would be sent back to Malaysia.

Thanh Hue Thi, 46, known as "The Bossî, ran the network with his 25-year-old wife Mee Yoke Pang. They lived at the Notting Hill house.

Hue Thi owned a fleet of cars and gambled away hundreds of thousands of pounds. Police said that over a six-week period he bet £30,000 at bookies on "anything that movedî.

During police surveillance, Hue Thi closed his Notting Hill and St John's Wood brothels and moved the women to Hyde Park and another property in Birmingham.

Detectives believe he was looking to expand his empire when he was arrested in May. The network was smashed and 21 women rescued.

The Met organised for them to be taken to support centres where they were offered food, clothing, health advice and counselling.

All the women returned home where they have received further support.

Hue Thi pleaded guilty to controlling prostitution for gain and conspiracy to traffic women for the purposes of prostitution in to the UK. The same charges against Yoke Pang are to lie on file.

The No 2 in the network, Kenny Low, 50, a chef from Westminster, pleaded guilty to the same charges.

Kwok Leong Hoh, 26, and Godfrey Wong, 21, both from Birmingham, Choon Fong Loh, 64, of Bayswater and Leng Wah Loh, 39, of Berkhamstead, all pleaded guilty to controlling prostitution for gain.

The gang will be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court.

The raids came under the umbrella of Operation Pentameter, a nationwide campaign launched to help women trafficked into the country.

 

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