The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Ancient trade has joined the internet age
It was a trade that used to be easy to recognise. The punter pulls up to the kerb in his car and exchanges a few words with a girl.
A quick handover of cash and the slam of a car door before they drive off in search of a suitably shadowy spot.
But like many industries, prostitution has moved with the times. Street corners have been swapped for online bulletin boards.
Word of mouth whispered in seedy pubs has become Trip Advisor-style reviews online. Find your perfect girl, have your way then leave a rating for the next punter.
Welcome to 21st century solicitation.
At any given time, around 100 women advertise themselves as being for sale in Aberdeen on one well-used website.
On the same day you will find almost 30 in the Highlands.
The women, ranging in age from 18 to 65, tour the country stopping off in cities for a few nights.
In each the call girls will rent a private apartment or hotel room where they can take their punters.
They will offer a wide range of services, many catering for the most bizarre fetishes.
And punters don’t even need to have a awkward conversation with the girls as a tick list at the side of their internet profiles details everything they will and won’t do.
These women are a breed apart from the stereotypical image of the mini-skirted prostitute on a grubby harbour side street.
These are well-organised professional escorts charging £100-plus an hour for their services and holding down tour schedules that would be a challenge to most rock bands.
In today’s modern world the anonymity of the internet allows them to continue living as mothers, wives and girlfriends while working as escorts.
Around four years ago it was believed more than £1million a month was being spent on prostitutes in the north-east.
Girls can typically see four or five men a day and charge anything from £120 an hour to £1,200 for a full night.
Officers said that in reality the total could have been three or four times that amount. In an underground industry which depends on discretion it is impossible to make accurate estimates.
At the height of the oil and property boom Aberdeen became a big draw for sex workers.
Some came from as far afield as South America and the Far East to capitalise on its high wages and steady turnover of clients with time on their hands and money to burn.
Last night, Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Houston said it was almost impossible to tell whether the decline in the oil industry has put a dent in the market.
“More than £1million a month was being spent on prostitutes”