Suburban brothels exposed

An astonishing 1,000 brothels are now operating in London's suburbs, according to Scotland Yard's Vice Squad. The massive sex trade is generating an estimated £50 million a year, mainly for Eastern European crime gangs.

The extraordinary new figures emerged after a pimp was jailed for two years for running vice dens in west London's suburbia.

Mehas Pandya, 43, admitted living off the immoral earnings from prostitutes he employed at 11 brothels - located close to Heathrow airport in Hillingdon, Harrow, Cranford, Hayes and Uxbridge. Accounts kept by his partner in crime Tammy den Haan, 43, revealed that the flats generated an income of between £15,000 and £30,000 a month.

Officers from the Yard's vice squad described his operation as "one of hundreds" thriving in London's suburbs. They said most of the prostitutes in off-street brothels and saunas were believed to be asylum seekers or illegal immigrants, most of them from Eastern Europe, Thailand or the Baltic states.

In one raid a fortnight ago the vice squad arrested nine prostitutes at one address. Three were failed asylum seekers and six were illegal immigrants.

Inspector Dick Powell of the vice unit said: "Pandya's was a slick operation. There was a well-organised management structure to the enterprise. Pandya was at the top and mainly hands off, while Den Haan was the second tier of the management and the maids in the brothels would be involved in the day to day running of the flats.

"I would estimate there are hundreds of people running similar small enterprises across London. The scale of the suburban vice trade is now massive. There are now anything up to 1,000 premises similar to these in London."

Police say much of the growth in suburban vice is driven by Albanian and Eastern European gangs that are trafficking women into the country. Albanian gangs are now estimated to have taken control of 70 per cent of the Soho vice trade.

Pandya was targeted by Scotland Yard amid fears that he was involved in trafficking and employing underage prostitutes.

In fact, Ugandan-born Pandya hired prostitutes, the majority of them Eastern European, after placing advertisements in local newspapers. He is believed to have operated for up to 20 years.

Police are unsure of exactly how much money he has made but it is estimated to run into millions. Privately, officers believe he has hidden much of his wealth - apart from a house in Finchley and a top-of-the-range BMW car, he displayed few signs of his wealth.

Officers carrying out surveillance on one "flagship" brothel address in Hounslow counted up to 70 clients a day visiting the premises, which was "serviced" by only two girls.

At one time an astonished officer waited while nine men visited the flat at the same time. It is thought the brothel operated a queuing system for the girls.

Middlesex Guidhall Crown Court heard how he ran the enterprise like a legitimate business, ploughing cash earned back into it and even providing laminated cards with a menu of services and conducting market research.

Pandya even offered his working girls counselling sessions for their personal problems.

He advertised his premises in local newspapers - spending as much as £2,000 every two weeks on promotion.

Judge Henry Blacksell QC said to Pandya: "You had taken pride in the way you ran this as almost an official business. It was a well-run and efficient co-operative which produced large sums of money."

Den Haan, of Hounslow, was jailed for 12 months, while Clifford Hutchings, 44, of Reading, was jailed for 28 days. Both had pleaded guilty to charges of aiding and abetting Pandya to live off immoral earnings.