MORE than 100 prostitutes worked in a brothel operated from a house in the heart of Southampton.

The girls were brought from the Far East to work in the city’s sex trade run by an organised gang.

They would work in the city for a couple of weeks before making enough cash to travel home.

The sex racket was run in a house in Captains Place near the upmarket Ocean Village area of the city.

Details of the operation came to light during a hearing at Southampton Crown Court, where it was revealed that one man paid almost £6,000 to place adverts luring punters into the business.

The adverts were placed in a free newspaper, not the Daily Echo or any of its sister papers published by Newsquest.

Keith Emery, 55, was arrested after suspicious neighbours contacted police about a stream of men making short visits to a house in Southampton.

They warned the woman occupier about allowing the premises to be used for the purposes of prostitution, but the “comings and goings” at the house did not end, said prosecutor Martin Booth.

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Police discovered that clients had made contact through a mobile phone number placed in free adverts and that they would be taken to a back room for various services carried out by Thai or Chinese women.

“It was a rotation system where women would turn up for a week or two and then move on,” said Mr Booth.

“The organisation was well thought out and run and involved some 100 girls. Having made sufficient money, they would return home.”

Emery, of Blenheim Road, Eastleigh, admitted assisting in the management of a brothel.

He was ordered to carry out 150 hours of community service and to pay £500 in costs.

Alistair Wright, defending, said that Emery had been “manipulated” after the breakdown of his marriage.

He said: “He otherwise would not have been involved and there is no evidence he made any money out of it.”

Passing sentence, Judge Gary Burrell QC told Emery: “For a man of good character, what a shameful, sordid and foolish thing to have become involved in.

“You were a fool to believe anything she said to you.

“What you did was placing and paying for these adverts for these services.

“You were plainly taken advantage of, you were emotionally vulnerable and you in effect had become disconnected from life.”