Crime pays...until you get caught

By Chris Summers
BBC News Website

A woman who came from rural Africa to run an "enormously successful" high-class brothel in central London has been stripped of her wealth by a British court. The case shows that crime can pay...until you get caught.

O'Brien - something of an entrepreneur

In any other industry Ann O'Brien would have probably won a businesswoman of the year award.

But unfortunately she chose to earn her living in the sex business.

Her astonishing rise - from a village in Kenya to a Mayfair penthouse in the space of eight years - suggests crime does actually pay.

But on Thursday she got her come-uppance when, after already being convicted of controlling prostitution, she lost £602,000 when a judge at Southwark Crown Court granted a confiscation order.

Ironically it would have been a lot more had it not been for the property market.

Detective Constable Lawrie Day, who investigated her fortune, said: "The brothel which we seized lost £500,000 in value between us seizing it and finally selling it, partly because she had a retrial."

We hope that our new powers to seize criminals illegally gained assets as well as imprisonment will act as a strong deterrent to anyone else thinking of operating now that we have closed down this significant criminal enterprise Superintendent David Eyles Vice queen loses money

The remarkable story starts in Kenya, where a girl called Ann Wamboi was born 32 years ago.

She dropped out of school as a teenager and worked selling vegetables on her mother's market stall.

After a few years she set up her own second-hand clothes stall.

Headed for Europe

But in 1995 the family saved up money to buy her a one-way plane ticket to Europe.

She ended up in the Republic of Ireland where she met Patrick O'Brien.

They moved to London and got married, which enabled her to stay in the country.

But Ann soon became Nancy - the name she used while working as a prostitute - and she began selling her body in London's brothels.

She was working at the top end of the market and such was her acumen that by 1997 she had earned enough money to buy a hairdressing salon - Dreamgirl Creations - in Kilburn, north London, for £200,000. She spent a further £150,000 refurbishing the shop.

O'Brien lived in the brothel's penthouse

But in May 2001 she went further and splashed out a £487,000 cash deposit on a five-bedroomed house in an exclusive part of Mayfair.

She kitted it out as a brothel - complete with whips, chains and other sex toys - and hired dozens of girls to work there round-the-clock.

At any given time about 14 girls were working, each of them charging around £150 per client.

Money was soon rolling in.

Det Con Day said she was making £12,000 a week in profits and was banking £1.5m a year.

But the vice squad soon learned about the brothel by sending undercover officers who replied to "raunchy" advertisements posted in London telephone boxes.

After visiting and convincing themselves the place was being used as a brothel the detectives "made their excuses before leaving".

With sufficient evidence police raided the address and closed it down.

O'Brien was put on trial and several of the girls working for her gave evidence against her.

Claimed ignorance

She claimed she was running a legitimate escort service and was unaware of the extra services the girls were providing on the premises.

The jury did not believe her and in May she was convicted and later ordered her to do 180 hours of community service.

Det Con Day and his colleagues in the Metropolitan Police's Clubs & Vice Financial Investigation Unit then set about investigating her assets, which they eventually calculated to be £2,169,710.

The properties were sold off and once mortgages and other costs were deduced they were left with a sum of £602,915.

O'Brien did not contest the confiscation order at this week's hearing.

DC Day said: "I'm happy that I've identified all her known assets. But she could have squirrelled some away, you never know."

Clients were charged £150 a time

He said of O'Brien: "She was a pleasant woman who ran a salubrious and up-market brothel. There was no coercion and no signed of trafficked women but she had not paid income tax and was benefiting from the proceeds of crime."

Her case is the latest success for the unit.

In the financial year 2004/05 they seized £2.5m in cash and assets from brothel owners and porn peddlers and they have already taken £1.1m so far in this financial year.

The money, which is confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Bill, is split four ways with the Home Office, CPS, Courts Service and the police all getting their share.

Vice laws review

The unit's head, Superintendent David Eyles, said: "We hope that our new powers to seize criminals illegally-gained assets as well as imprisonment will act as a strong deterrent to anyone else thinking of operating now that we have closed down this significant criminal enterprise."

A Home Office spokeswoman said some may see prostitution as a victimless crime but she added: "We are aware that there are communities which suffer from prostitution and the criminality associated with it."

She told the BBC News Website: "It's a complex issue and we are looking to break the links between prostitution, drugs and trafficking."

The Home Office is carrying out a comprehensive review of prostitution laws, which involved a public consultation, and will be publishing its strategy in the next couple of months.