Trafficker jailed for forcing women into sex work

Manachaya Wanitthanawet recruited the women by telling them they would work in a massage parlour

A human trafficker who lured women from Thailand and forced them into the sex trade has been jailed for nine years.

Manachaya Wanitthanawet, 40, created online adverts for prostitution, which took place at venues in Dundee, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Inverness and Newcastle.

She had arranged for victims to travel from Thailand to Scotland where they were originally asked to work at a massage parlour, but were exploited as sex workers after being told they owed £90,000.

Her former partner and client Cameron Wilson, 30, who laundered almost £150,000 from the crime scheme was jailed for 21 months.

The pair, who were latterly sharing an address in Yeovil, in Somerset, had denied a series of charges at the High Court in Dundee.

A trial heard that AirBnB properties in Dundee and across Scotland were used as brothels for the women to meet clients, with victims forced to have sex with up to 15 men a day to pay off supposed debts.

One woman told the court that the accused had promised her "no less than £2,500 a month" to work as a masseuse, but was put up in a studio flat and told to offer sex to clients.

She said: "In my heart, I wanted to escape from that situation, but I had no money, no passport and spoke no English, so then I cry."

A police raid in December 2020 on a flat in Dundee's Gardner Street where Wanitthanawet and Wilson resided recovered £3,800 in cash, bank cards belonging to Wilson and electronic devices with one containing messages relating to arrangements for a sexual encounter.

Forced into prostitution

Wanitthanawet was convicted of recruiting and transporting the women, featuring them in adverts for sexual services and forcing them into prostitution between July 2019 and July 2022.

She was also found guilty of exercising control over them and aiding and abetting their prostitution.

Wilson was found guilty of transferring, concealing and converting criminal cash through bank accounts.

Defence solicitor advocate Kris Gilmartin, for Wanitthanawet, said the first offender achieved a degree in business and worked as a production manager before arriving in the UK.

He said that after arriving in the UK she willingly became involved in sex work.

Mr Gilmartin said: "She does not and has not at any point suggested she was a victim of human trafficking."

Mr Gilmartin said that in a report prepared on her she accepted she did exploit the women and told them that they had a debt and it had to be paid.

He added: "Given the length of sentence which will be imposed it is inevitable that deportation will follow. She will have to return to Thailand to start again."

Lord Scott made a five-year human trafficking prevention order on Wanitthanawet.