Member of gang that trafficked 19 women into UK for prostitution jailed for four years

A MEMBER OF a gang which trafficked 19 women into prostitution in England and Wales has been jailed for four years for his role in the operation.

Hong Chin helped to arrange for the women to meet men at hotels across the south-east of England and in Cardiff.

The 45-year-old was sentenced in the Old Bailey today. Two of his accomplices will be sentenced next week, on 3 November.

The women, who were from south-east Asia, had their services advertised on a number of adult websites. If the numbers given in the adverts were called, it would be put through to one of the gang who would then make contact with the woman in question.

Conducting their business from hotels in Brighton, Exeter, Bournemouth, Gatwick and Heathrow, among others, almost 400 bookings were made between August 2013 and March 2015.

False names were given when checking into the hotels. Customers would pay in cash, which would then be deposited into a number of bank accounts controlled by gang members.

The operation generated thousands of pounds, with £88,000 deposited in one account, and £66,000 in another.

Kevin Thomson, from the CPS, said: “The gang exploited vulnerable women, putting them to work in situations which exposed them to serious potential risks. Once the women were caught up in the prostitution ring, it was invariably almost impossible for them to escape the life they had been forced into.

All the time, they were then earning what turned out to be huge sums of money for the defendants, who were responsible for running the operation without any regard for the women’s wellbeing.

Read: ‘I don’t think we got it because we’re women’: Caitriona Perry and Keelin Shanley on Six One jobs

Read: In Ireland, another 76 children became homeless just in time for the new school year