Madam ran 'brothel on wheels'

A red-light madam pocketed a fortune with an "enormously successful brothel on wheels" operation, a court heard today.

Ann O'Brien's "take-away" sex menu for hotel guests began with a "normal half-hour" for £100 with the option of an hour's activities for "slightly more", it was claimed.

Oral sex as well as other "services of every type" were also available from her widely advertised Marble Arch Girls and Nancy's Escort Visiting and Massage Service, London's Southwark Crown Court was told.

But punters without a handy hotel room to enjoy themselves in were not forgotten, prosecutor Jonathan Higgs alleged.

He claimed the 51-year-old also operated two central London bordellos equipped with the usual tools of the forbidden trade.

Upstairs bedrooms boasted condoms, various items of clothing and "other things you may think are not there for somebody to spend a comfortable night on the road," the barrister said.

"This was an enormously successful business and she has a large number of different bank accounts.

"Thousands of pounds were going through this account every week," he told the jury.

"You will consider whether or not the volume of cash being paid in is something you might expect of a legitimate business, or whether it is, in fact, again one of the hallmarks of very successful and well-run brothels."

O'Brien, of Claremont Road, Cricklewood, north west London, denies four counts of controlling prostitution between October 10, 2003, and April 15 this year