A BROTHEL keeper netted nearly £57,000 through a string of sex houses in York and elsewhere, York Crown Court heard.

But when financial investigators tried to claim his criminal wealth for the taxpayer they could only get their hands on £886. Last September, the same court heard how Malaysian-born Rajakumar Ravi, 48, may have been living in Britain illegally for 23 years and operated his 11 sex-for-sales shops over a 30-month period across the country.

They included a prostitution den in Nicholas Street, off Lawrence Street, York, where illegal Chinese immigrant women were paid for sex.

Chris Smith, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said specialist investigators had calculated that Ravi benefited by £56,893.56 from his crimes. But his only available assets were £886.16, which the police will now seize.

“These consist of money in an account and the proceeds of the sale of a vehicle held by police,” he told York Crown Court.

Last September, Edward Bindloss, for the Crown Prosecution Service, told the same court that Ravi, who gave a Hull address, arranged the tenancies of suburban properties in quiet streets, which were then turned into brothels, staffed by illegal Chinese immigrant women.

During the 30 months that he and his female and male accomplices ran shops in York, Hull, Scarborough, Grimsby, Luton, Derby, Crewe, Redcar and Llandudno. The gang’s bank deposits included ones of £27,000, £35,000 and £9,700.

York Crown Court heard in September that £65,734 was spent on the properties in the same period, excluding prostitutes’ wages.

The York vice den charged £100 an hour for sex and was closed down by a North Yorkshire Police operation targeting trafficked women.

Undercover officers posing as customers infiltrated the brothel before raiding it in December 2007.

Last September, Judge Michael Murphy called for immigration chiefs to look into Ravi’s background, and discover how he may have escaped detection as an illegal immigrant for 23 years.

He jailed Ravi, formerly of Cholmley Street, Hull, for 21 months. Ravi admitted conspiracy to manage brothels and acquiring, possessing or using criminally acquired money. He had been in custody since the previous December and usually prisoners are released half-way through their sentence including time on remand.

But Ravi was still in custody when he appeared for the confiscation hearing. He arrived separately from defendants held in prisons and with a different security firm. No reason was given for his detention.