SEX is being sold by Oriental women in a quiet suburban cul-de-sac on the outskirts of York, the Evening Press can reveal.

A brothel, involving a number of Far Eastern prostitutes, has been set up in a semi-detached house in Whitley Close, Clifton Moor.

The revelation has outraged some local residents, who say the area is full of families with children and totally inappropriate for such activities.

One claimed a number of "unsavoury" characters had beaten a path to the house over the past week.

The sex-in-the-suburbs scandal was uncovered by the paper yesterday after a tip-off.

Evening Press Chief Reporter Mike Laycock phoned the business, called Oriental Rose and offering "friendly oriental girls, professional massage, private surroundings".

He was told two women were working there, offering a massage and certain "complimentaries".

He visited the premises and was taken upstairs to a bedroom by a woman in a see-through top.

The woman, who had a poor command of English, offered full and oral sex for £60 and other sexual acts for £40 - with more than one woman if wanted - and our reporter was shown to a bed. He made his excuses and left.

It is illegal to run a brothel, which constitutes premises where more than one prostitute is working. Police raided two such premises in Fishergate and Nunnery Lane in 2000.

They said the action was taken because they were residential areas and after complaints had been received from the public.

But one resident of Whitley Close claimed yesterday that he had complained to police about the activities in his street, but they had not seemed interested.

The paper was today attempting to contact senior police officers to inform them of our discoveries in Clifton Moor, and ask what action they planned to take.

The resident said he did not object to brothels in themselves, but believed they should be located in an appropriate area.

"Fair enough, but not in an ordinary, residential street with lots of kids."

He said people, from teenagers to elderly men, were arriving at the house from lunchtime onwards, right through the afternoon and evening and into the early hours. Many parked up some distance away and then walked furtively up to the house.

Another resident, a woman, agreed, saying: "It should be shut down. I think it's disgraceful. Some of the people visiting the house are very unsavoury characters."

A woman, who said she ran Oriental Rose, said today that many people were running such businesses. Told that the brothel was causing concerns locally, she said: "If it's a problem, we probably would consider moving."

Updated: 10:59 Friday, August 08, 2003