IT’S NOT what you would expect in a quiet Hampshire village.

At the NatWest bank, a steady stream of customers were going about their daily business, fromcashing cheques to seeking mortgage advice.

But little did they know that, directly above them, in a privately rented flat, money was also changing hands as a seedyunderworld of prostitution was flourishing.

The brothel was being run by a father of two, with men booking sex sessions at the premises under the guise of massages, Southampton Crown Court heard.

The agency, called Fellowberrys, was run online by Kim Li, and advertised a variety of women’s profiles in free publications.

On an online site, however, the girl’s profiles were a lot more explicit.

Prosecutor Dawn Hyland told the court how Li ran the agency using up to 25 different girls who came from across the world, mainly from Eastern Europe and Africa, to work in the sex industry.

He ran the illegal business from his home in Bridge Road, Park Gate, where he lived with his partner Xiao Yang – who was known as Fiona – and their two children.

Officers from Hampshire police’s vice squad were first alerted to Li, 36, when they received information by residents about a premises they suspected was being used as a brothel in Above Bar, Southampton, several years ago.

Months of investigative work led to simultaneous raids at three properties across Hampshire in August last year.

At his Bridge Road home, Li was caught on his laptop updating the agency’s Internet site, when police burst into the property.

Meanwhile, his partner Fiona was found at the brothel above the NatWest, in Botley Road,withoneof theirchildren, who was aged around two years old.

She was at the premises to facilitate an appointment and one working girl was also inside the property.

A third raid was carried out at the same time at a brothel being ran by Li in an upmarket town centre apartment in Basingstoke, where another working girl was also found.

A man who was found there was arrested by officers while Li and Fiona were also arrested and taken into custody for questioning.

The court heard members of the website could book appointments with the girls after viewing their profiles before turning up to one of the premises at a prearranged time.

The women were regularly swapped around at the two different brothels with up to 25 girls recorded as having worked for Li according to paperwork seized, Miss Hyland explained.

They charged up to £100 for a session netting Li up to £600 a week as he took half of what the girls made.

Over the ten-month period the business was operating, it earned Li £36,000 according to bank deposits but that was thought to be a fraction of what he was actually making.

Li, a British national, was the only one to be charged with managing the two brothels and receiving criminal property. He pleaded guilty to both charges when he appeared in court.

Mitigating, Maria Lamb told the court how her client was an habitual gambler and most of the money was spent on funding that addiction.

She said he had fallen into the sex trade by accident after Li, a business and marketing degree graduate, initially opened a legitimate massage business before realising the customers had “a much broader interpretation”

of what was actually being offered and thought there was more money to be made.

Judge Gary Burrell sentenced 36-year-old Li to 13- and-a-half months in prison.

A secondary investigation by the force financial investigation team is looking to take back any money Li has made from his crimes, using the Proceeds of crime Act.

After the case, investigating officer, PC Katie Holmes of Southampton’s vice squad, said: “I thank everyone who helped bring this defendant to justice.”

A NatWest spokesman declined to comment.