Guilty One man is jailed for running a brothel in town flat
THREE people have appeared in court after an investigation by the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit into the running of a brothel in Cheltenham.
Mark Viner, 62, who was extradited from his Barcelona home to face justice, pleaded guilty to keeping a brothel, two charges of arranging or facilitating a person with a view to their being exploited, under the Modern Slavery Act, and money laundering between January 2016 and December 2018.
Rosana Gomes, 44, of High Six Gardens, Patchway, Bristol and Lezlie Davies, 62, of Millennium Plaza in Warwick Place, Cheltenham, pleaded guilty to assisting in the management of a brothel.
Bristol Crown Court heard Gomes was a caring bit-part player who tried to protect foreign women brought into the UK via Bristol to ply their lucrative trade, Bristol Live reports.
Judge William Hart told key offender Viner: “You plead guilty on the basis these women were in the business of supplying sexual services and you did not coerce, pressure or control them.”
He told Gomes: “You indirectly assisted in the management of those premises.
“You are essentially a thoroughly decent woman.”
Kannan Siva, prosecuting, told the court Viner rented out a flat in Millennium Plaza, Cheltenham, as a brothel charging £80 a day or £500 a week to sex workers for the privilege.
He paid for two Brazilian women to fly from Paris to Bristol, they were then taken to Cheltenham to supply sexual services.
Viner’s friend Davies lived as a subtenant in the next door flat to the brothel, “kept an eye” on what was going on and sometimes helped women with lifts, the court heard.
Gomes acted as the womens’ PA, booking rooms and helping with adult services profiles online.
The investigation began in January 2018 after an anonymous letter was received by Gloucestershire Police which detailed allegations against Mark Viner and Lezlie Davies.
Judge Hart jailed Viner for 69 months and handed Gomes and Davies 12-month community orders with 10-week curfews.