British Brothel Madam Extradited From Thailand After Jumping Bail

[sriracha john]

Brothel madam made £1.2m profit from prostitutes

Angela Miller

A brothel madam and people trafficker made almost £1.2 million from two massage parlours in Northampton where Thai prostitutes were kept in semi-slavery, a court heard.

Angela Miller, aged 51, faces having all of her money, savings and properties in Thailand being confiscated and up to 10 more years in prison under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

She was convicted of controlling prostitutes and their earnings in September 2000 but jumped bail and fled to Thailand before she could be sentenced.

Having been on the run for six years, she was extradited back to the UK in October 2006 to start more than four years imprisonment imposed in her absence.

She appeared at Northampton Crown Court yesterday for a confiscation hearing, almost a decade since her arrest for running two brothels passing as massage parlours in Northampton.

Police raided the brothels in Kingsley Park Terrace, run by Miller and her ex-husband Ron, revealing that 18 Thai women had been trafficked into the UK for prostitution.

The people smuggling racket involved Thai women being brought to the UK by Miller, her ex-husband or agents at £10,000 a time in an operation reaching the UK, France, Australia and Canada.

Giving evidence, Miller admitted making the Thai women pay her £10,000 to travel to the UK but denied she was as rich as the prosecution alleges.

She is accused of forcing each girl to pay £10,000 every three months.

Miller told Judge Richard Bray that the women had to repay the costs of illegal entry into the UK, would have to buy their own condoms, food and water but were left £10 to £15 a day "for sweets".

She is said to have hidden away up to £700,000 cash which she had taken from the prostitutes as well as amassinga number of property investments in her homeland.

Det Con Paul Beck, who led the original investigation and brought Miller back from Thailand, said investigations with the Royal Thai Police revealed Miller's extensive assets and savings.

As well as owning a house in Cavendish Drive in Northampton, Miller also owned a penthouse in the beach resort of Pattaya, four plots of land and four shops in Kanchanaburi, savings in two bank accounts as well as the Far East Rock bar in Pattaya which was also run as a brothel.

The prosecution are seeking to prove she made £1.2 million from prostitution, with £434,000 in traceable assets and another £700,000 which she denies hiding away from investigators.

Miller claims to have no money and has previously blamed her ex-husband Ron for taking all of the money they made through the Siam Sauna and Thai House brothels.

The hearing continues.

- Northampton Chronicle (UK)

[tijnebijn]

Would take about time they brought these scumbags to

justice . I sincerely hope that anyone caught will get

life imprisonment , they are such bad and selfish people .

What happened to the husband ?

[Lilawadee]

That depends, I think.

I'm not assuming anyone was 'trafficked' in the sense of human slavery, though the article does not make this clear one way or the other. I'm assuming it involved advancing money for a ticket & visa to the UK, which then had to be paid back from earnings. I would also assume the Thai women knew very well what the deal was.

The amount of punishment will likely depend on the amount of deceit and/or force that was used to retain the women, if any.

[Prakanong]

Is this the place where the Labour MP for Sheffields was caught in a poice raid?

They were certainly not shy in advertising widely though these places in Northhampton and about the availability of Thai girls.

[tijnebijn]

She does look pretty cheap for a miliion pound woman doesn't she ?

[Prakanong]

She does look pretty cheap for a miliion pound woman doesn't she ?

Should see my pal in Singapore then who is worth a lot more than that... flip flops, shorts and cheap shirt.

Even better when its happy hour or a taxi driver tries one on!!!!

[slapout]

My thoughts are with the poor lady, imagine, being ripped off by a spouse who took the proceeds from all of her work and savings. Hope he has not disappeared into the sunset with all of her assets, or worse has an English girlfriend or wife who is helping him spend the ill gotten gains.

[stats]

At least she got a getaway money lol

[Brewsta]

THat smile and wave say it all...... cushy cell followed be release nd visit to empty an off-shore bank account - you think?

[sriracha john]

Sell all your homes or face longer in jail, sex slave trader told

Sex slave trader Angela Miller, who smuggled Thai girls into the UK to work in Northampton brothels, must now sell all her property or face four more years in prison.

The Thai brothel madam has six months to sell her penthouse flat, tourist bar, four shops and plots of land in Thailand to raise part of the fortune she made from prostitution.

She and her ex-husband Ron were arrested in November 1998 when officers raided two brothels run by the couple, purporting to be legal massage parlours in Kingsley Park Terrace, Northampton.

Up to 18 girls from rural areas in Thailand were bought from agents for £5,000 and smuggled into the UK on false passports, having been duped into believing they were to work in bone fide saunas.

But they soon discovered they were expected to sell themselves for £60 sexual services and had to 'repay' £10,000 to Miller every three months, only being allowed money for sweets.

Having fled to Thailand and being on the run for six years, Miller is now serving four years' imprisonment for controlling prostitutes and people trafficking, having been extradited in 2006.

Judge Richard Bray yesterday decided she earned a minimum £672,000 from prostitution between 1995 and 1998.

Miller, aged 51, is thought to have made £1.2 million since 1991 and hidden the majority of it.

Dc Paul Beck said investigations in Thailand revealed Miller owned a bar, brothel and penthouse in Pattaya, bank accounts, four shops and plots of land in Kanchanaburi, on the River Kwai, yet she claimed to have no money and little investments.

Judge Bray ordered she sell all realisable assets, worth an estimated £422,000, or serve another four years in prison. Miller, formerly from Langlands, Northampton, is due to be released in November 2009.

Judge Bray said: "These girls were brought over with false documents, with no opportunity to escape. Their passports and visas, which were false, were retained by the defendant. They were effectively kept as slaves."

He ruled Miller had made £700,000 cash from these "unfortunate prostitutes" charging them £20,000 over six months before their visas expired.

Judge Bray said he completely rejected Miller's claims of penury: "She has consistently and deliberately tried to conceal the true position. I am unable to accept anything she had to say which was not independently confirmed by the prosecution.

"She told a number of lies and frequently contradicted herself giving evidence."

Tony Davies, defending, said the prosecution's assessment of her earnings had relied on the evidence of two Thai women who "may have hidden agendas and considerable resentment as ex-employees".

He said: "These girls had to be paid for, with a fee to be paid to the agent, for bribery, expenses, passports, air fares, and the defendant wanted reimbursement for some of that."

- Northampton Chronicle

=================================================================

Northampton sex slave trader: timeline of events

The story of Angela Miller has unfolded since 1998.

November 26, 1998

Up to 50 police and immigration officers raid the Siam Sauna and The Thai House massage parlours in Kingsley Park Terrace, Northampton.

Twelve Thai women are arrested along with three men. Having divorced the previous year, Ron and Angela Miller were each running a brothel with "a rolling supply of Thai girls".

September 1999

Angela Miller is fined £9,000 for running a brothel in Leicester. Her son Don, who worked as a receptionist, is fined £1,000 after he admitted living off prostitution.

The Leicester parlour was run as an extension to the two brothels in Northampton.

September 15, 2000

Angela Miller pleads guilty to two charges of controlling prostitutes. Granted bail pending sentence, she flees the country and returns to her native Thailand.

She leaves behind a five-minute tape explaining her reasons.

Judge Bray sentences her to three-and-a-half years in her absence.

Further raids on The Thai House find five more Thai women.

September 18, 2000

Ron Miller, aged 72, is jailed for four years while Mrs Miller's new partner, Myles Lant, is jailed for two years.

Ron Miller's daughter Sharon Haisman receives 180 hours community service while Don Miller, aged 30, is sentenced to 150 hours unpaid work.

January 2001

Dc Paul Beck and Dc Allan Blyth travel to Thailand in order to seek assistance from the Royal Thai Police in tracking the mother-of-two down, as well as looking into the numerous bank accounts and properties she has amassed.

They include £92,000 in the Siam City Bank, a penthouse apartment and bar/brothel in the beach resort of Pattya.

June 2001

Sharon Haisman, aged 46, is ordered to pay back £35,000; Myles Leant has £14,000 confiscated; and Don Miller is ordered to pay £300 for confiscation.

January 2002

Ron MIller is told he must hand over £70,000, confiscated from the profits he made from the sex trade.

June 2006

Angela Miller is arrested in Thailand and held in prison for five months awaiting extradition.

October 2006

She returns to the UK, accompanied by Dc Beck, after agreeing not to fight extradition.

November 2006

Sentenced to a further nine months in prison for what Judge Bray described as "the most blatant contempt of court" by skipping bail and being on the run for almost six years.

January 2008

Having failed to declare any of her financial assets, she is ordered to pay £422,000, confiscation from the £1.2 million she is believed to have made from sex slavery.

- Northampton Chronicle

[jts-khorat]

Their passports and visas, which were false, were retained by the defendant. They were effectively kept as slaves."

He ruled Miller had made £700,000 cash from these "unfortunate prostitutes" charging them £20,000 over six months before their visas expired.

I know it is a very emotional topic, but the sensationalist press in the west does nothing much tio endear me if it cannot keep even simple facts straight. If the passports and visas would have been faked, I am sure there is more to come than 4 years for human trafficking. And #fake visas do not expire#, so the judge himself givign this statement makes it out to be untrue.

Assumption, as the defence said, is that the Thai women knew exactly what was the deal. They might have been getting much less than advertised (or not), but that they unknowingly ended up in 'sex slavery' seems unplausible to me. To use this term for a 3 month stint in the west is another of those sensationalist terms that lets me immediately take the whole article as discredited; Journalism should be without such bias or it is not better than rumours told over the neighbors fence.

Assumption would be that the "unfortunate prostitutes" -- now we have the same bias from the judge -- 'upgraded' from the bar in Pattaya to the UK, so women coming back from their 3 month stint would surely have not advertised the scheme on if they were not happy with what they carried home.

Just working as a farmhand in Israel or a construction worker in Taiwan costs nowadays up to THb 100,000 in commission to the agent, so GBP 20,000 seems not really that outrageous to me (if the women knew their earning potential and job).

[guru]

Not all Thai girls are aware of "the deal".

I know a girl who thought she was going to stay in Denmark with her boyfriend but when she arrived her passport was taken and then made aware of the deal.

Luckily for her she knew another Thai women there married to a Dane who came over before anything happened and persuaded this gang to return her passport and let her return to Thailand. The gang involved the "boyfriend" and a thai women and I suspect other men who brought girls over as "girlfiends". Devious scum.

I felt particularly bad because the wife and I had helped the girl write emails to the scumbag "boyfriend" and translate incoming messages.

[jeztennis]

ok

lets all understand exactly how it works, 95% of the girls are already bar girls and are invited to move illegally to another country to earn a fortune although they are made aware of just how much they have to pay back, the going rate is 8000 pounds and he girl has to pay back about 25000 pounds which they normally do in about 4 or 5 months, the girl is housed , clothed and fed and transported normally from massage parlour to massage parlour, her family is also sent 300 pounds a month whilst she works her contract, some run away with a farang they meet through work and some finish their contract, they are then free agents and will have many contacts of massage parlours to work in, they will probably share a one bed apartment with 2 other girls and split the rent one of whom at least will have a boyfriend who has rented the apartment in his name, the girl can then comfortably earn between1000 and 2000 pounds a week sending some of it home but more often than not buying expensive jewellery or handbags, i know all this as a friend used to do it with his ex thai girlfriend. the main points to remember are that he never ever met one of these girls who claimed she had no idea what she was letting herself in for and that they enjoy the money aspect they can easily stay one or two years and then set themselves up in their home town forever.

chew on that for a while

[sriracha john]

So human trafficking is just a myth?

[Lilawadee]

So human trafficking is just a myth?

It isn't.

But the term is used so loosely that it's almost meaningless. What is trafficking? Can arranging a visa, air ticket and a place of work be trafficking? Or is it only trafficking if you put 30 Chinese guys into a 40 ft container and smuggle them in? These are very different scenarios, but the popualar press (well, all press) doesn't seem very interested in the differences.

In the stories quoted above I find many things that seem severely unlikely. For starters: Fake passports. Why? Any Thai can make a passport for 1000-something baht. Why the need for a fake passport? Someone is called "Nong A" who can easily get a pristine and valid Thai passport but then people go through the trouble of getting her a 'fake' passport in the name of "Nong B"? Why?

Second thing is about the amount of deceit involved: "Rural girls were tricked by promising they'd be working as xyz but instead...".. This also seems unlikely because if you spend 30 minutes in Pattaya you will find a handful of girls who would JUMP at the opportunity to not make 1000 baht a trick but real money in Britain; there's simply no need for deceit about the nature of the job, and besides, why would an employer not want people with 'experience'...

Dont; get me wrong, it's still very much illegal and there may be other deceit involved such as overstating the earnings and unde-stating the work-load, which can be VERY heavy, quite unlike the work load for a typical Pattayan bar dweller. But once in the UK and in debt it's not that easy to just return.

[torrenova]

Why don't they just let girls who are willing to come and service the guys have visas, tax them and so forth ? Or are they saying that the UK has enough prostitutes already and importing Thai hookers would make UK hookers actually have to do honest work ?

[BigSnake]

Good looker, bet she had little or trouble learn the trade herself. BYE bye sweet dreams, Thailand has enough MADAM already.

[mikethevigoman]

Their passports and visas, which were false, were retained by the defendant. They were effectively kept as slaves."

He ruled Miller had made £700,000 cash from these "unfortunate prostitutes" charging them £20,000 over six months before their visas expired.

I know it is a very emotional topic, but the sensationalist press in the west does nothing much tio endear me if it cannot keep even simple facts straight. If the passports and visas would have been faked, I am sure there is more to come than 4 years for human trafficking. And #fake visas do not expire#, so the judge himself givign this statement makes it out to be untrue.

Assumption, as the defence said, is that the Thai women knew exactly what was the deal. They might have been getting much less than advertised (or not), but that they unknowingly ended up in 'sex slavery' seems unplausible to me. To use this term for a 3 month stint in the west is another of those sensationalist terms that lets me immediately take the whole article as discredited; Journalism should be without such bias or it is not better than rumours told over the neighbors fence.

Assumption would be that the "unfortunate prostitutes" -- now we have the same bias from the judge -- 'upgraded' from the bar in Pattaya to the UK, so women coming back from their 3 month stint would surely have not advertised the scheme on if they were not happy with what they carried home.

Just working as a farmhand in Israel or a construction worker in Taiwan costs nowadays up to THb 100,000 in commission to the agent, so GBP 20,000 seems not really that outrageous to me (if the women knew their earning potential and job).

Mmm, i think if you put an ad in the pattaya news 'wanted , "prostitutes to work in the uk ' you would unindated,. sex slaves ? me thinks not,. Edited January 12, 2008 by mikethevigoman

[mikethevigoman]

ok

lets all understand exactly how it works, 95% of the girls are already bar girls and are invited to move illegally to another country to earn a fortune although they are made aware of just how much they have to pay back, the going rate is 8000 pounds and he girl has to pay back about 25000 pounds which they normally do in about 4 or 5 months, the girl is housed , clothed and fed and transported normally from massage parlour to massage parlour, her family is also sent 300 pounds a month whilst she works her contract, some run away with a farang they meet through work and some finish their contract, they are then free agents and will have many contacts of massage parlours to work in, they will probably share a one bed apartment with 2 other girls and split the rent one of whom at least will have a boyfriend who has rented the apartment in his name, the girl can then comfortably earn between1000 and 2000 pounds a week sending some of it home but more often than not buying expensive jewellery or handbags, i know all this as a friend used to do it with his ex thai girlfriend. the main points to remember are that he never ever met one of these girls who claimed she had no idea what she was letting herself in for and that they enjoy the money aspect they can easily stay one or two years and then set themselves up in their home town forever.

chew on that for a while

I have a friend in the uk, married a bg, got to the uk, all hunky dorey, 6 months passed off she goes to join the ranks of the "working girls " in leeds, all arranged before the marraige ? who knows,.sex slaves ?

[mikethevigoman]

Sell all your homes or face longer in jail, sex slave trader told---Snip---

Having failed to declare any of her financial assets, she is ordered to pay £422,000, confiscation from the £1.2 million she is believed to have made from sex slavery.

- Northampton Chronicle

Can i pay 50p a week your honour ?

[jts-khorat]

So human trafficking is just a myth?

But the term is used so loosely that it's almost meaningless. What is trafficking? Can arranging a visa, air ticket and a place of work be trafficking? Or is it only trafficking if you put 30 Chinese guys into a 40 ft container and smuggle them in? These are very different scenarios, but the popualar press (well, all press) doesn't seem very interested in the differences.

Exactly my point; if chaining underage Burmese girls to a bed and servicing 30 guys a day falls in the same category as a luxury Thai hooker sending more than my own personal income home (and then dunking her employer in, she was 'trafficked' and a 'sex slave', bacuse even that amount was not enough) -- and neither the press nor the judge of the case itself sees a difference, then I must say: go on trafficking and well done if she could hide enough money to ride it out.

Because there is a difference and both the public as well as the law makers should be aware of it.

Putting it in the same category makes a travesty of the plight of the really trafficked women and children, which would be a cause to fight for.

[NanLaew]

So human trafficking is just a myth?

But the term is used so loosely that it's almost meaningless. What is trafficking? Can arranging a visa, air ticket and a place of work be trafficking? Or is it only trafficking if you put 30 Chinese guys into a 40 ft container and smuggle them in? These are very different scenarios, but the popualar press (well, all press) doesn't seem very interested in the differences.

Exactly my point; if chaining underage Burmese girls to a bed and servicing 30 guys a day falls in the same category as a luxury Thai hooker sending more than my own personal income home (and then dunking her employer in, she was 'trafficked' and a 'sex slave', bacuse even that amount was not enough) -- and neither the press nor the judge of the case itself sees a difference, then I must say: go on trafficking and well done if she could hide enough money to ride it out.

Because there is a difference and both the public as well as the law makers should be aware of it.

Putting it in the same category makes a travesty of the plight of the really trafficked women and children, which would be a cause to fight for.

Help me out here jts and Lila, exactly what argument are you trying to make here? Are you saying there's 'good' trafficking and 'bad' trafficking? Which one are you trying to justify?

[geriatrickid]

Unfortunately, this is more prevalent than many of us would like to believe. The trend today is to obtain the girls from China or from former east bloc countries. The same folks that import and traffic in this are the fine community minded group that traffic in endangered species, and drugs.

[thaigene2]

My understanding of this is that one can only convict for 'trafficking' if the women were unaware or were tricked into the working conditions. Then the court has to prove that they didn't know they were being abused. But if they're under 18 I think that doesn't matter and they can covict on trafficking.

In other words, if the women knew they were goign to the UK to be hookers, and knew they had to pay the costs through an agent or the mamasan, then there is no trafficking case. Just running a common bawdy house and perhaps complicity to evade immigration laws.

Not as straightforward as it appears. Maybe that's why she's smiling and waving to the cameras?

[No beleeeeve!]

I don't think people are trying to say there is "good" or "bad" trafficking.

I think people are trying to make the distinction between a woman who willingly goes to another country to be a sex worker (and who often is a prostitute in her home country)...and a woman (who most likely is not a current prostitute) who is deceived/forced/coerced to go to another country and when she arrives then finds out she will be forced to be a prostitute against her will.

Just because a woman chooses to go to another country and be a prostitute does not automatically mean she is trafficked. And...yes, some woman choose this life, contrary to what our Western beliefs make of this.

That is what I am reading from the previous posts.

[thaigene2]

Agree - exactly what I was trying to say above.

[sriracha john]

My understanding of this is that one can only convict for 'trafficking' if the women were unaware or were tricked into the working conditions. Then the court has to prove that they didn't know they were being abused. But if they're under 18 I think that doesn't matter and they can covict on trafficking.

In other words, if the women knew they were goign to the UK to be hookers, and knew they had to pay the costs through an agent or the mamasan, then there is no trafficking case. Just running a common bawdy house and perhaps complicity to evade immigration laws.

Not as straightforward as it appears. Maybe that's why she's smiling and waving to the cameras?

For some reason, I somehow thought she was convicted of trafficking...

Miller is now serving four years' imprisonment for controlling prostitutes and people trafficking

[kat]

My understanding of this is that one can only convict for 'trafficking' if the women were unaware or were tricked into the working conditions. Then the court has to prove that they didn't know they were being abused. But if they're under 18 I think that doesn't matter and they can covict on trafficking.

In other words, if the women knew they were goign to the UK to be hookers, and knew they had to pay the costs through an agent or the mamasan, then there is no trafficking case. Just running a common bawdy house and perhaps complicity to evade immigration laws.

Not as straightforward as it appears. Maybe that's why she's smiling and waving to the cameras?

If they used false paperwork and false pretenses to get those women into the UK, then it is trafficking. Not all trafficking is necessarily about lack of consent, but about false pretenses and forced, exploitative conditions. I'm sure the women did not consent to losing control of their money and having most of their earnings confiscated either.

[Briggsy]

If her fellow inmates read the papers or even Thaivisa, they'll come to know their new cellmate/blockmate is worth over a million quid. She'll get tapped up for more "loans" than a bloke who met the love of his life in Pattaya's Soi 6 and is on his first visit to Isaan.

[Fun2Fun]

Second thing is about the amount of deceit involved: "Rural girls were tricked by promising they'd be working as xyz but instead...".. This also seems unlikely because if you spend 30 minutes in Pattaya you will find a handful of girls who would JUMP at the opportunity to not make 1000 baht a trick but real money in Britain; there's simply no need for deceit about the nature of the job, and besides, why would an employer not want people with 'experience'...

Dont; get me wrong, it's still very much illegal and there may be other deceit involved such as overstating the earnings and unde-stating the work-load, which can be VERY heavy, quite unlike the work load for a typical Pattayan bar dweller. But once in the UK and in debt it's not that easy to just return.

There are many reasons why the prefer inexpirienced girls.

Because girls without expirience and english language skills is far easier to "control" and keep under their thumb.

Aswell as having a higher degree of shame about what they are forced to do, so that they are less likly to try to get help from someone from home or from the local Thai embassy.

Why would they not choose girls with expirience from Pattaya?

They would be difficult to control, they would be far more likly to demand more both from conditions and in regards to how large cut to keep.

They would be very likly to "flee" and go work on their own.

They would be much more likly to have someone to contact for help, eighter former customers or friends from back home.

The list goes on and on.

Edited January 14, 2008 by Fun2Fun