Post by admin on Aug 26, 2007 2:24:19 GMT -5
Brothels / Massage Parlours etc
Working for
It is legal to work as a prostitute in a brothel, but see the following section too and be careful that is all your job entails.
Running
Owners and managers are definitely liable to the 'exploitation of prostitution' section of the SOA 2003. Each carries a penalty is up to six months or a fine in a magistrate's court, seven years in a crown court. The larger your operation, the larger the chance that you will end up in the latter - the police in some areas may tolerate single brothels, but chains are a higher priority for all police forces.
In addition, the SOA 1956 section on brothels has been amended following the police successfully lobbying government to increase the 'Penalties For Keeping A Brothel' to cover those cases where they could not prove control.
Because the definition of a brothel is so wide - it covers gay saunas, clubs where people have sex on the premises and arguably just about every hotel in the country - the SOA 2003 added a new section 33a to the 1956 Act covering brothels "to which people resort for practices involving prostitution (whether or not also for other practices)."
This also has a maximum penalty of six months or a fine in a magistrate's court, seven years in a crown court. (For brothels not involving prostitution, the penalty remains up to six months or a fine.)
It is an offence for a person to keep, or to manage, or act or assist in the management of, a brothel
What the prosecution has to prove
(i) That the premises you are working in classify as a brothel and
(ii) that you were aware of this and
(iii) that you were keeping, managing or assisting in its management.
(i) What is a Brothel?
Any premises - including private flats, saunas, massage parlours - will be classed as a brothel if they are used by more than one man or woman for 'physical acts of indecency for ... sexual gratification', whether on the same day or on different days - 'in series or in tandem'. The sexual services do not necessarily have to include sexual intercourse or, indeed, payment!
So if you share premises with someone else and work on alternate days or weeks, they will count a brothel even though there is never more than one person working at any one time.
Where rooms or flats in one building are let separately to different individuals offering sexual services, the premises as a whole may still count as a brothel if the individuals are effectively working together. Evidence of shared keys, washing and toilet facilities, staircases, tenancy agreements etc will be relevant.
If you are the only person who provides sexual services on premises, with or without the assistance of a non-sex working maid or receptionist, the premises are not a brothel.
(ii) Knowledge
To be guilty, you have to have been aware of the circumstances which made the premises a brothel. So if you work on premises for, say, two days a week and have no idea what they are used for on the other days, you have a defence. But the court may 'infer' knowledge if they think you were blinding yourself to the obvious.
(iii) Keeping, managing or assisting in its management
Again, working as a sex worker, or in any other capacity, in a brothel is not of itself an offence.
The police have to show that you were 'managing', or assisting in the management of, the operation in some way. Whether or not you are the tenant or occupier of the premises is immaterial in deciding this question - but see offences relating to tenants.
You have to have some degree of 'control' over the running of the business. If you have a say in what services are offered and how much is paid for them, this is control. Taking money from clients and noting its receipt in a cashbook; putting up advertisements; paying bills; hiring and firing staff; supplying materials; banking and book keeping, have all been held to amount to a sufficient degree of control.
Activities such as admitting customers, cleaning, removing rubbish, making coffee or other duties of a trivial nature are not sufficient.
If you are providing sexual services but the prices and the services have been set beforehand by someone else, and you have no power to discuss or vary them, you cannot be said to have the requisite degree of control.
There are no hard and fast rules for what activities amount to this offence. Each individual case will be considered on its own merits, and you should seek legal advice.
source -
www.sw5.info/morelaw.htm#soliciting
Working for
It is legal to work as a prostitute in a brothel, but see the following section too and be careful that is all your job entails.
Running
Owners and managers are definitely liable to the 'exploitation of prostitution' section of the SOA 2003. Each carries a penalty is up to six months or a fine in a magistrate's court, seven years in a crown court. The larger your operation, the larger the chance that you will end up in the latter - the police in some areas may tolerate single brothels, but chains are a higher priority for all police forces.
In addition, the SOA 1956 section on brothels has been amended following the police successfully lobbying government to increase the 'Penalties For Keeping A Brothel' to cover those cases where they could not prove control.
Because the definition of a brothel is so wide - it covers gay saunas, clubs where people have sex on the premises and arguably just about every hotel in the country - the SOA 2003 added a new section 33a to the 1956 Act covering brothels "to which people resort for practices involving prostitution (whether or not also for other practices)."
This also has a maximum penalty of six months or a fine in a magistrate's court, seven years in a crown court. (For brothels not involving prostitution, the penalty remains up to six months or a fine.)
It is an offence for a person to keep, or to manage, or act or assist in the management of, a brothel
What the prosecution has to prove
(i) That the premises you are working in classify as a brothel and
(ii) that you were aware of this and
(iii) that you were keeping, managing or assisting in its management.
(i) What is a Brothel?
Any premises - including private flats, saunas, massage parlours - will be classed as a brothel if they are used by more than one man or woman for 'physical acts of indecency for ... sexual gratification', whether on the same day or on different days - 'in series or in tandem'. The sexual services do not necessarily have to include sexual intercourse or, indeed, payment!
So if you share premises with someone else and work on alternate days or weeks, they will count a brothel even though there is never more than one person working at any one time.
Where rooms or flats in one building are let separately to different individuals offering sexual services, the premises as a whole may still count as a brothel if the individuals are effectively working together. Evidence of shared keys, washing and toilet facilities, staircases, tenancy agreements etc will be relevant.
If you are the only person who provides sexual services on premises, with or without the assistance of a non-sex working maid or receptionist, the premises are not a brothel.
(ii) Knowledge
To be guilty, you have to have been aware of the circumstances which made the premises a brothel. So if you work on premises for, say, two days a week and have no idea what they are used for on the other days, you have a defence. But the court may 'infer' knowledge if they think you were blinding yourself to the obvious.
(iii) Keeping, managing or assisting in its management
Again, working as a sex worker, or in any other capacity, in a brothel is not of itself an offence.
The police have to show that you were 'managing', or assisting in the management of, the operation in some way. Whether or not you are the tenant or occupier of the premises is immaterial in deciding this question - but see offences relating to tenants.
You have to have some degree of 'control' over the running of the business. If you have a say in what services are offered and how much is paid for them, this is control. Taking money from clients and noting its receipt in a cashbook; putting up advertisements; paying bills; hiring and firing staff; supplying materials; banking and book keeping, have all been held to amount to a sufficient degree of control.
Activities such as admitting customers, cleaning, removing rubbish, making coffee or other duties of a trivial nature are not sufficient.
If you are providing sexual services but the prices and the services have been set beforehand by someone else, and you have no power to discuss or vary them, you cannot be said to have the requisite degree of control.
There are no hard and fast rules for what activities amount to this offence. Each individual case will be considered on its own merits, and you should seek legal advice.
source -
www.sw5.info/morelaw.htm#soliciting