Women pay for running brothels

03/04/2008

Today, at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court, Penny Kemp and Deborah Cartwright were sentenced for their parts in the running of two brothels in Stoke-on-Trent.

Both were fined £500 each and ordered to pay, under the Proceeds of Crimes Act 2002 (POCA), £80,000 each within six months or face a 21 month prison term in default.

POCA allows the court to make an order against a defendant(s) to pay a sum equal to their benefit from the crime. If they fail to do so, their assets which can, and often are frozen by the courts, can then be sold to pay the order.

Kemp pleaded guilty at a hearing on 13.3.07 and Cartwright was found guilty after a full trial on 19.7.07 both were charged with two counts of keeping a brothel used for the purposes of prostitution.

Steve Ash, CPS prosecutor and Proceeds of Crime Act specialist said: "This case again shows that those who commit crime for financial gain can expect not only to be sentenced in the usual way, but also to receive a confiscation order to the value of their benefit from crime or the value of their assets, unless they can prove to the court that they came by those assets legitimately."