Suspended jail term for man involved in brothel cash laundering

A man who allowed his bank account to be used to launder thousands of pounds from brothels in Ipswich, Sudbury and Colchester has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Police officers found a number of Romanian sex workers at premises in St Matthew’s Street and Duke Street, Ipswich, Lucas Road in Sudbury, and George Williams Way and Clearwater in Colchester after ringing numbers advertised on an adult work website, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Hugh Vass, prosecuting, said the sex workers told officers that they were working voluntarily and they refused to make statements.

He said Mircea-Ovidiu Alver, 22, of Harrow, London, was arrested by police on March 26 last year and it was discovered that more than £30,000 had been laundered through his bank account.

Alver admitted conspiracy to launder money and was given a 21-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months and ordered to do 180 hours of unpaid work in the community.

He denied conspiring to assist in the keeping or management of a brothel and this charge was left in the court file.

Confiscation proceedings are scheduled to take place later in the year.

Christopher Paxton, for Alver, said a number of other people involved in the conspiracy had fled from the UK and Alver was the only one who had stayed in the country to ‘face the music’.

He said that Alver had been asked to launder money from the brothels by his uncle and had found it difficult to turn him down.