A RENTED flat on a residential street in Carlisle was converted into a brothel which was used by at least eight sex workers.

The lucrative operation – estimated to have generated a monthly profit of almost £7,000 over nearly two years – came to light after police investigating local concerns carried out a series of welfare visits.

The two women found working there as prostitutes claimed that they were acting independently – but detectives found evidence that the brothel was being managed by 30-year-old Ana-Marie Stefan.

At Carlisle Crown Court, she was spared an immediate jail sentence after a judge accepted that she did not coerce or trick the sex workers in working for her at the brothel. Andrew Evans, prosecuting, outlined the facts.

Stefan took over the tenancy for the Greystone Road flat in October, 2020.

When police visited the property, two Romanian women there confirmed that they were working as “escorts”. One said she organised her own clients and kept the profits. “She stated that she’d worked this way in Romania but had travelled to Carlisle via Dublin to work in Cumbria instead,” said Mr Evans.

The second woman also spoke to the police.

Mr Evans said: “Despite her initial embarrassment, she confirmed that she was supporting herself by acting as a sex worker. She said she arranged her own clients and had her own mobile phone.”

Both women were adamant that they were not controlled or coerced into being sex workers and said they controlled what they did and the money that they made.

Police also raided Stefan’s Woodruffe Terrace home in Carlisle, seizing three mobile phones. They found thousands of messages, organising sex work for several women at the Greystone Road property.

The messages showed that Stefan:

  • Liaised directly with clients, asking “which girl they wanted.”
  • Organised advertising for the women on various websites.
  • Checked with one sex worker whether she was satisfied with the photos used in an advert.
  • Told the sex workers when the clients would arrive, though they were free to tell her if they needed a rest and message that they were “ready” to work.
  • And continued to organise clients for one sex worker even after she had left the UK.

The messages also showed how one of the women had complained to Stefan, expressing frustration that “business was slow” and her concern that the defendant’s advert was a waste of money.

In response, Stefan agreed to change the advert. She also agreed to move CCTV cameras in the brothel to improve security after one of the women was attacked by a client.

During a series of welfare checks by police, officers found that at least eight women sex workers had used the property.

Mr Evans said Stefan’s finances were extensively analysed, revealing that over the 21 months when she ran the brothel her accounts received £184,405. The sex workers kept half of what they earned.

Her profit from the operation was estimated to be £145,787, equating to more than £1,700 a week, though half of this cash was transferred to other accounts held by Romanian nationals. 

“It’s the Crown’s case that the defendant used the profits of the business to fund her lifestyle and send funds back to her home country,” said Mr Evans.

The court heard also about how Border Force officials stopped Stefan, who worked in Carlisle as a delivery driver, as she drove a Mercedes S Class car at the Eurotunnel Terminal in Coquelles in France on August 3, 2021.

The two women found at the brothel in Carlisle and their boyfriends were in the car. Stefan claimed they were friends, and she was bringing them to the UK for a holiday.

But when their luggage was searched, officials found lingerie, sex toys, and other similar paraphernalia, suggesting that they were in fact sex workers. They were barred from going on to the UK.

But the women – Stefan included – all made their way to the UK via Dublin, where they split up. The two sex workers were found working in Carlisle six days later.

In her basis of plea, Stefan said the women were her friends who had contacted her because they wanted help to come to the UK and earn more money as sex workers.

She said: “The females were already working as prostitutes in Romania. They contacted me to assist them with moving to the UK to earn money. I had no control of the coming and going of the prostitutes.”

Nor did she limit their freedom, she said.

Andrew Gurney, defending, said Stefan first came to the UK in 2017 when she was “tricked” into working illegally. But some women in the place where she worked helped her to escape.

After returning to Romania, she had reconnected with two former school friends – the women found working at the Carlisle brothel.

“They were already working as sex workers In Romania,” said Mr Gurney. “They had numerous conversations about returning to the UK to work as prostitutes.”

The defendant accepted setting up the Greystone Road tenancy. “But at no time did she attempt to coerce or manipulate these women into this,” continued the lawyer.

“It was mutual and meant to be a beneficial agreement. They trusted her.” Mr Gurney added that Stefan was remorseful and had not realised she was committing an offence.

Judge Nicholas Barker said: “It’s clear that the police had concerns over the use of this property over what was a considerable period. Such properties arouse suspicion in the local neighbourhood because of the comings and goings of single males, often at unsocial times.”

Stefan had demonstrated a determination to bring the two women to Carlisle following their refused entry in France.

The judge said: “It’s clear that this operation generated significant financial returns to you... I do accept, and it is said in your basis of plea, that these two females were not coerced, tricked or intimidated; and that they were both sex workers in Romania.”

 

He imposed a two-year jail term but suspended the sentence for two years, ruling that Stefan, who has no previous convictions, must complete 30 days of rehabilitation. There will be further hearing in August to decide what "criminal" profits can be seized from the defendant.