Warning signs Could there be a brothel in your street?
Vulnerable young women are being exploited for sex within prostitution rings and pop-up brothels.
Many are recruited from overseas to carry out sex acts for cash which is handed over to a ring leader or pimp.
Three people convicted of running a “sexual conveyor belt” of prostitution and using Maidstone hotels after making £100,000 could be jailed when they are sentenced later this year.
In August, shocked parents learned a brothel operating just metres away from a primary school and nursery was raided and shut down.
While police work hard behind the scenes to put a stop to the exploitation of vulnerable women, this special report could help you identify the telltale signs of a brothel.
Prostitution is not illegal in the UK, running a brothel is against the law and women across the county are working as slaves in domestic sex dens.
A pop-up brothel is often created in a newly acquired property privately rented in towns or cities rather than a rural location.
Homes are often limited in their furnishings and may even look as though nobody lives there. Budget hotels or holiday properties are also sometimes targeted by those running brothels. partner 44-year-old Li Wei Gao trafficked women into their prostitution ring between 2013 and 2015 before police shut their operation down.
Along with Chin’s then-lover Ting Li Lu, 47, from Southsea, Hampshire, the pair were convicted of conspiracy to control prostitution for gain by a jury at the Old Bailey on Thursday.
The court heard how Chin, 45, made a total of 92 hotel reservations through Booking.com at hotels across Sussex and Kent, including Maidstone.
A total of 19 victims, all from South East Asia, were identified as being exploited at hotels across the South East.
Detectives scoured hours of CCTV to find the defendants escorting women to hotels around the country while also gathering other evidence from adult websites and booking records.
The women were sent to perform sexual services all over the south of England and customers paid in cash on arrival with sums being channelled into the accounts of takeaway employee Chin, of Ashtead, Surrey and Gao, of Esher, Surrey.
All three were convicted of conspiring to control prostitution for gain and conspiring to traffic people for sexual exploitation into the UK and will be sentenced