POLICE SMASH KING PIMP’S £20M EMPIRE Rogue landlord trafficked vulnerable women into the UK
A rogue landlord who fled Scotland after ripping off students has become a global vice king with brothels generating a £20million fortune.
David Archer, 53, preyed on impoverished foreign women who he trafficked into the UK and forced to work in the sex industry.
He kept one terrified victim locked in his £1.3million home where he used CCTV to monitor inside his four dingy brothels across London.
And he sexually assaulted other women while taking explicit photos of them for online adverts.
Police warned that the “controlling and manipulative” Glasgow pimp thought he was “untouchable” with links to organised crime gangs in Romania, Brazil and Ireland.
A six- month probe uncovered Archer’s £16million property empire, including the Travel Inn in Forest Gate wh i c h he boug ht for £1.5million.
On the same street, he also owned a three-bedroom house which he il legal ly c onv er t e d into 24 bedrooms – each used to sell sex.
Another brothel , the Excel hotel in Plaistow, was boug ht for £545,000.
Detectives and charities w ho he l p traff icked women were stunned at the scale of Archer’s operation, which raked in £1.6million annually.
During a raid of a locked privatete room in one brothel, sniffer dogs found £142,000 hidden in a shower cubicle.
Despite thinking he would never be caught, Archer was finally brought to justice.
He was jailed for 13 years after admitting conspiracy to control prostitution for gain, two counts off human trafficking, possession of a fake ID document and concealingg criminal property last month.
He was also found guilty of threee counts of sexual assault followingg a four-week trial at Snaresbrookk Crown Court but cleared of sevenn rapes and another assault.
Prosecutors are now fighting too strip him of his dirty fortune.
Anne Read is director of anti-itrafficking and modern slavery atat the Salvation Army, who have helpedd 7000 victims in the past six years.
She said: “It sounds as if this mann is at that severe end of entrapmentnt and abuse.
“For victims to be locked in is rare. MoreM often they’ll be held by thrthreats against their family back home, not knowing the langulanguage or being told the police won’t help them. “ThisTh guy is at the top end and there wi l l be local agents workingwork with him. There’ll be lots of people making lots of money.mon He sounds as if he’s at the vvery extreme end in terms of sscale and the abuse he’s subjectedsubj people to.” TheTh Sunday Mail today lays barebar the scale of Archer’s empireemp and reveals he changed his name from David Grant. AsA Grant, he gained notorietyno as a Porschedrivingdrivi landlord, quitting Glasgow wwith a £500,000 trail of debt. In 1995, our sister paper the Daily Record told how he stole deposits
from students while renting out death-trap properties with no fire escapes.
Police also investigated sex tapes made by Archer.
One female student said: “He was trying to chat us up but we just thought he was smarmy.”
After leaving Scotland, he was divorced by his wife Lucia.
He moved to Ireland where he falsely claimed to be an architect.
In 2007, he pleaded guilty to allowing a dangerous building in Dublin to be used as a hostel for 170 people without planning permission or a fire certificate.
It was in 2012 – while building his massive vice empire in London – that he changed his name from Grant to Archer.
Using a series of companies to mask his prostitution racket and launder its income, he forged links with Romanian gangsters who shipped vulnerable women to the UK.
Our probe has found he even used the identity of his daughter on Companies House documents for one of his front firms.
Claire Grant was a schoolgirl in Glasgow when she was named as the company secretary of Countryside Hotel Ltd, whose registered office was Archer’s Travel Inn vice den.
Mum Lucia said that Claire had no idea her name had been hijacked by her estranged father.
Lucia, who divorced Archer in 1998, said: “She would have been 16 at the time. This was without her knowledge. She has no contact with him.”
Archer’s downfall featured in BBC show The Met: Policing London, in which Sergeant Vicky Kneale branded him “very controlling, very manipulative” with brothels in London and “potentially overseas”.
Despite presiding over an international organised crime business, Archer only had two previous convictions for assault.
Kneale said: “He has been pretty much under the radar. I think he sees himself as untouchable by police.”
One moment showed Kneale briefing more than 100 officers before they raided his properties.
She told them: “This guy thinks he’s untouchable. Tonight’s going to be a little bit different.”
When she discovered the £142,000 of cash, she said: “Holy s**t. We’ve just found a whole load of money in Archer’s room. I had no idea it was going to be on this scale.”
Archer was then filmed as he was led from a cell to be charged. Police seized his assets including the four London properties, three in Dublin and two Mercedes cars.
One source said: “He has about £16million of identifiable assets.
“But it’s likely he’ll have millions of pounds stashed in offshore accounts or property in countries without proceeds of crime laws.
“To suggest he could be worth £20million is probably a conservative estimate.”
Salvation Army director Read added: “The victims should be entitled to compensation from his proceeds of crime.”
Detective Sergeant John Kirby, of the Met’s Sexual Offences Exploitation and Child Abuse Command, said: “It’s possible there are further victims who have not yet come forward. We would urge them to speak to police.”
It’s likely he’ll have millions stashed in offshore accounts