A Colombian madam who ran brothels in Finchley and Burnt Oak was sentenced to 15 months in prison and had assests seized worth in excess of £170,000 at a court last week.

Miriam Escobar, 43, of Bittacy Road, Mill Hill, had pleaded guilty to five counts of exercise and control of prostitutes for the purpose of gain, running five brothels in north London using a stable of 20 prostitutes, many of whom were teenagers from Eastern Europe and South America who were living in the UK illegally.

Southwark Crown Court heard on Thursday last week that Escobar had earned between £7,000 and £14,000 per week from brothels in Burnt Oak Broadway and Lichfield Grove, Finchley, and others in Enfield, Wembley and Rayners Lane. She listened to details through a Spanish interpreter of how she attracted customers to her seven days a week operation through advertisements for 'erotic massage' in local newspapers and newsagents windows.

Her 21-year-old son, who has not been named, was in court and heard that his mother had been a prostitute herself for several years and had been fined £210 in 1993 on a charge of 'keeping a brothel'. Now a student at Birmingham University, he was apparently unaware of his mother's activities until her arrest in December last year, which had followed three months of police surveillance.

Explaining his sentence, Judge Robbins said: "You operated a quite extensive criminal activity controlling quite a number of prostitutes. The financial benefit to you was quite considerable."

He ordered her to pay a total of £170,495.58 by selling all her assets, including her Mill Hill home, car, and a nightclub she ran in Wood Green. She will receive another two-year jail term, to run concurrently with the other if she fails to hand over the money in the next two years.

October 24, 2001 17:31