A PROCEEDS of crime application has been formally launched in a bid to recover the profits a couple made from running a string of brothels in Suffolk and Essex.

Josh Warwick

A PROCEEDS of crime application has been formally launched in a bid to recover the profits a couple made from running a string of brothels in Suffolk and Essex.

Anthony Pryor, 69, and his Chinese wife Quing Hua, 37, earned thousands from their seedy business interests before they were eventually caught and jailed.

The Pryors operated a brothel, offering sex with Chinese immigrant prostitutes, from an address in Ipswich's Chevallier Street. They also ran similar sex dens in Sudbury and Braintree.

It is understood they raked in more than £150,000, which the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is hoping to recover.

A Proceeds of Crime Act confiscation order has been served on the couple, which is expected to be heard in September.

A spokesman for Essex CPS said statements of representation had been served upon the Pryors' lawyers.

Hua also faces deportation after she completes her sentence as she is an illegal immigrant.

The couple, of The Plain, Epping, were placed under surveillance in January 2006 and were arrested in June of that year. They were found guilty by a jury on January 29 this year.

During their trial, the judge said that while there was no evidence to support the view the couple were involved in people-trafficking their Chinese prostitutes, those with whom they had associated, probably were.

The crimes were described as “shameful, seedy and depraved”.

The couple were told to expect to serve half of their 18-month terms in prison and half on licence.