Trio facing jail after being found guilty of trafficking women for prostitution

A former couple are facing jail after they helped fund their child’s private education by trafficking women into a “sexual conveyor belt” of prostitution across England and Wales.

Malaysian Hong Chin (pictured, left), 45, ran a pit bull dog breeding kennel on a country estate in Esher, Surrey, where his ex-partner Li Wei Gao (pictured, centre), 44, lived in a converted barn with their daughter.

At the same time, the pair raked in more than £100,000 through the trade in trafficking women for sex work until the operation was shut down by Sussex Police.

They were helped by Chin’s then-lover, Ting Li Lu (pictured, right), 47, who he lived with in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, jurors heard.

Following a trial at the Old Bailey, all three defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to control prostitution for gain between February 2013 and June 2015.

They were also convicted of plotting to traffic for sexual exploitation into the UK between March and June 2015.

Sussex Police were alerted to the illicit operation in February 2015 after one of the women reported being debt bonded.

Following extensive investigations, they had identified 18 women from China, Hong Kong and Korea who were exploited for prostitution.

But they came up against a wall of silence from the women, many of whom denied being involved in the sex trade – with only one prepared to give evidence in court.

Investigators gathered other evidence from mobile phones, adult websites and booking records as well as CCTV footage which showed the defendants escorting women to hotels around the country.

The women advertised sex services on adult websites and the contact number was fielded by the defendants who would organise and notify them of jobs.

The gang would use false details when they reserved rooms through Booking.com at hotels including Premier Inn, Travelodge, and Holiday Inn.

Between August 2013 and February 2015, Chin made a total of 92 hotel reservations on the online booking service, the court heard.

The women were sent to perform sexual services in hotels all over southern England and Wales, including Maidstone, Cardiff, Brighton, Gatwick, Eastbourne, Southampton, Woking, Exeter, Guildford, Windsor and Bournemouth.

The customers paid in cash on arrival and some of it was channelled into the accounts of Chin and Gao.

When police visited the rooms they frequently found them in disarray, with the detritus of prostitution in evidence, including condoms.

In his summing up, Judge Philip Katz QC described the operation as a “sexual conveyor belt”.

Chin had a fake British passport and went by various different names including Ricky, Goon Saw and Ken.

His Chinese ex-partner used a false passport in the name of Xin Pan and also was known by the alias Jassica, the court heard.

The victims have since returned to their home countries, except for the woman who gave evidence in the trial who has claimed asylum in the UK.

Chin, of Dunstall, Burton-Upon-Trent, Gao, of Heathside, Oxshott, and Lu, of Portsmouth, denied the charges against them.

Detective Inspector Andy Richardson of Sussex Police said: “This has been a complex and lengthy investigation where vulnerable women were trafficked into the UK for the purposes of prostitution.

“Often the women were moved to different towns around the South East where hotel rooms were booked for them, and then they were told who they would be seeing and what services they had to offer; they had no say in any of this.

“This was effectively a well organised and structured business which made the defendants thousands of pounds, as was seen from their bank accounts.

“These convictions are a really positive result for Sussex Police, for the victims involved and for all communities to show that human trafficking is not acceptable and will not be tolerated.”

Kevin Thomson from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “This was an organised operation designed to traffic women into prostitution, as shown by the variety of bank accounts used to run it and the sheer amount of funds it generated.

“These elements helped to provide compelling evidence of what these defendants were doing.

“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 well-being.”

The defendants were found guilty on all charges by a majority after the jury deliberated for more than 14 hours.

A fourth defendant, taxi driver Wing Yeun, 41 – who is originally from Hong Kong but lives in Palace Square, London, was earlier cleared of all charges against him.

Chin and his two former lovers will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on a date to be fixed.

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