A 45-YEAR-OLD Welsh brothel madam, who escaped a prison sentence and was instead asked to pay nearly £3 million from profits rendered, was said to have fled to Cyprus.
Whether Diana Jane Jones was in the free or occupied areas was yesterday unclear.
According to UK press reports Jones was ordered to pay £2.6 million for monies earned from running four vice dens in Wales and England. The court was told Jones, who was absent from Thursday’s proceeds of crime hearing, was in Cyprus where she planned to stay.
During the hearing procedure Judge John Curran said: “The court is obliged to make an order to ensure that persons who profit from criminal offences will not retain the profits of their industries. What she was doing was against the law, but it is not the most heinous sort of offending such as large-scale dealing in drugs or offences of fraud.”
Jones’ sex business collapsed after she pleaded guilty in January last year to concealing criminal property and managing a brothel between May 2004 and October 2006. She escaped a maximum 10 year jail term and was instead given a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to carry out 200 hours’ unpaid work. The Judge spared the grandmother from imprisonment because he ruled “no-one was harmed” by her activities.
Jones’ empire included three massage parlours in Cardiff, Wales and one in Swindon, England. The WalesOnline reported she netted more than £11,000 on one Six Nations rugby weekend in the capital alone.
The confiscation investigation was launched by the Regional Asset Recovery Team (RART) a month after her conviction.
Curran said on Thursday if the 45-year-old failed to pay the confiscation order within the next six months, she could ask for a six-month extension, the WalesOnline said. However if she failed to pay up after that, she faced four years behind bars and would still owe the money, according to the Scotsman.
At a hearing in February the court heard Jones’ business had generated as much as £4m. A quarter of that amount accounted for legitimate running costs of the four brothels and an additional £400,000 had been spent and was no longer available.
The court heard assets available for the purposes of the confiscation order amounted to £184,125.53, which included the equity in her luxury property in Llandain, Carmarthenshire, money in bank accounts, an Audi car, a motorbike, a bicycle, garden mower and wrist watch. A further £2,415,874.47 was available in hidden assets, said the WalesOnline.
Jones’ business was toppled by Operation Pentameter, a police crackdown on people trafficking into the UK sex industry, when a 64-year-old Plaid Cymru assembly member died from a heart attack at one of her Cardiff brothels.
According to the BBC, the Head of RART in Wales Detective Chief Inspector Chris Dodd said: “The extent of Jones’ offending bought her a significant lifestyle which we will now dismantle.
“Our colleagues in South Wales Police identified the original offences, the expertise of RART officers traced assets, restrained properties and obtained the confiscation orders.
“The RART will now assist the courts service to enforce the orders and ensure that Jones pays what is owed, or serves the additional sentence.
“This end-to-end co-operation will continue to be focused on those who seek to profit from such criminality.”
More than £116,000 is also to be confiscated from four other women connected to the case. The foursome, described as Jones’ “subordinates”, were given four-month sentences, suspended for two years.
They are Anne Phillips, 62, Alison Sutherland, 48, Allison Blight, 39, and Laura Lloyd, 27.
Sentencing Jones last year, Curran had said: “The real evil being looked at here is where prostitutes are coerced, threatened or trafficked.
“That is not a feature in this unusual case. No-one has suffered any physical or psychological damage. Police officers regularly visited these establishments to check whether underage girls were employed or if there was any drug use.
“And, on occasion, people working at these establishments were a source of intelligence. Some members of the police force were aware of what Diana Jones was doing.”
