Brothels accused finally in the dock

A TRIO accused of running brothels in Dundee were allegedly claiming thousands of pounds in tax rebates for their business.

Eduard Stanciu and Cristina Gaica have appeared in court after allegedly previously fleeing to Romania before a scheduled date at Dundee Sheriff Court.

The duo, who lived in Dundee for around four years, are alleged to have lived off the earnings of prostitution throughout that period.

Octavian-Marian Poraditu, 32, from Kirkcaldy, denies living off the proceeds of prostitution and transferring criminal property out of the country.

It is alleged that they were involved in human trafficking and conned the taxman out of nearly £10,000 before a bid to obtain another £23,000 by the same fraudulent means.

Stanciu, 31, and Gaica, 32, whose address was given as Arklay Street, had been due to appear in the dock at Dundee Sheriff Court during 2020.

However, neither turned up, and fiscal depute Marie Irvine said: “The Crown has information to suggest both accused have returned to Romania.

“That is based on police intelligence. As such I would move for a warrant.”

Sheriff Alastair Carmichael granted warrants for the arrest of both accused, who also face a charge of laundering money from Scotland to Romania.

Both are alleged to have “knowingly lived, wholly or in part, on the earnings of prostitution” in Dundee and Kirkcaldy between 28 September 2015 and 23 August 2019.

That offence is alleged to have taken place at Arklay Street, Blackness Road, Peddie Street and Lochee Road in Dundee, as well as Pottery Street in Kirkcaldy.

That charge, and a second offence of “removing, concealing or transferring criminal property from Scotland” by moving it into foreign bank accounts before withdrawing it, are alleged to have been aggravated by links to human trafficking.

The third charge alleges that they conned HMRC into processing a £9,840.56 rebate, and tried to make a further claim for overpaid tax to obtain another £22,999.09 by fraud.

The trio appeared in the dock this week and continued to deny the charges. Sheriff Paul Brown fixed a trial for later this year.