A Chinese couple ran a chain of brothels, one in Plymouth, England, while another man laundered the proceeds.
But one of the guilty men skipped bail and disappeared over the weekend, emptying his room at a city B&B and leaving an unpaid bill of £70, the court heard.
Feng Jiang, aged 30, and her partner Lei Zhang, 32, both of Shandy Street, Stepney, east London, had both denied running a chain of ‘chicken houses’ in which trafficked girls worked as prostitutes.
Before the trial at Plymouth Crown Court started in early September, Feng Jiang pleaded guilty to two of the eight charges against her.
Two weeks into the trial she sacked her barristers and appointed new ones, then pleaded guilty to three counts of brothel-keeping in Exeter and London, one of controlling prostitution for gain and one of trafficking women for sexual exploitation.
Yesterday Lei Zhang was convicted of five counts of keeping a brothel, one of controlling prostitution for gain, one of trafficking women for prostitution and one of converting criminal property.
He was acquitted of a second count of converting criminal property.
However, as the seven women and four men of the jury – a fifth male juror having gone sick on the final day of the six-week trial – filed back to return unanimous verdicts on all counts, Lei Zhang was not in the dock to hear them.
If he is not found and arrested in time to be sentenced with Feng Jiang in about three weeks, he could be sentenced in his absence.
The jury found that a third man, 50-year-old Chun Hung Lau, of Lake View Drive, Tamerton Foliot, Plymouth, acted as secretary of a firm which laundered hundreds of thousands of pounds in proceeds from the vice operation.
They found him guilty of one count of converting criminal property, acquitted him of a similar charge and convicted him of mortgage fraud – obtaining a money transfer by deception.
He was released on bail by Judge Paul Darlow to be sentenced at the same court on Friday, October 30.
bron: www.thisisplymouth.co.uk [26-10-2009]
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