Brothel man's assets seized

At a confiscation hearing at York Crown Court, Yuanjia Hu, 23, was ordered to pay £2,015.82 for his part in the business, which was run by Hao Wang.

The Evening Press exposed the Oriental Rose bordello in August 2003, after our chief reporter, Mike Laycock, phoned the business in Whitley Close, Clifton Moor, and established that massages "plus complimentaries" were available. Wang had set up business there less than a month after a landlady acted to stop him running another brothel at a rented house in Montague Street, South Bank, York. In February this year, Wang was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to living off prostitution and causing actual bodily harm.

He was released from jail in August, and has now been deported. A confiscation hearing to determine whether his assets will be seized is due to take place in January.

Hu was ordered to do 180 hours of community punishment and pay £350 in prosecution costs after admitting living off prostitution.

But it was accepted that his only part in the business was to arrange tenancies of the York properties.

Now he has up to two months to pay the £2,105.82, after a judge ruled the Crown had a right to his assets - the value of the money in his bank account and a van.

The court heard how Michael Sankey, a financial investigator for North Yorkshire Police, had investigated Hu's accounts for the past six years.

He found a total of £96,969.89 had passed through Hu's hands, which the 23-year-old could not account for.

By law, a court is therefore allowed to "assume" that this cash was earned through crime.

Judge Scott Wolstenholme said: "In reality, this defendant was not running prostitutes, but he was simply assisting a friend who was doing that."

But he said: "Somebody who gets caught up in immoral earnings should have some explaining to do."

Hu faces a 45-day prison sentence if he does not pay up in time.

Updated: 09:53 Monday, October 31, 2005