"Illegal whoring safer than legal": Aussie pim

[sam]

This story brings up a fact you don't often see discussed.

Prostitution ads in the Village Voice, Boston Weekly, Portland Mercury etc. are mostly collectively placed by organized criminals, not individually by independent sex workers. An Australian business research group tracked the phone numbers in several USA weekly papers back to their source and found 4-5 operators placed 90% of escort ads.

About two years ago I called up all the escort services listed in Portland's alternormal weeklies to gather information for a local sex workers group I was involved with at the time. More than once I'd be on the phone with a woman and in the background I'd hear other women in the "call center" taking johns' orders. Pimps and traffickers have got a very slick operation going to manage collecting the millions of dollars men are paying to break into women's bodies. -sam

Prostitution empire earned $1.8m
By Greg Stolz
June 13, 2007
http://www.news.com.au /couriermail/story/0,23739,21896378-952,00.html

A pimp arrested in one of Queensland's biggest prostitution busts turned over $1.8 million in less than two years, a court was told yesterday.

Father-of-five Benjamin Turner had more than 230 male and female prostitutes on his books who charged as much as $8000 an hour, Southport Magistrates Court was told.

Turner, 37, was originally charged with 130 prostitution-related offences. But after negotiations between his legal team and police, the charges were reduced to 14 to which he pleaded guilty.

Prosecutor Trudi Jobberns told the court Turner was arrested after a three-year investigation by the police Prosecution Enforcement Task Force, which used undercover officers posing as prostitutes and clients to gather evidence.

Ms Jobberns said Turner ran his prostitution empire from Tweed Heads, where he operated under various trade names including Ben's International Playgirls, Hollywood Honies, Charlie's Angels and Wild Country Gals. He had 59 phone services registered to his businesses, which he promoted in newspapers, magazines and on the internet.

Turner procured women from Australia and overseas to work as prostitutes, who he signed to contracts after meeting with them at coffee shops.

He leased apartments in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast for the prostitutes and had drivers take them to calls.

To counter police stings, Turner instructed his prostitutes to ensure clients were naked before discussing sexual services "as (undercover) police would not strip", Ms Jobberns said.

She called for Turner to be jailed, saying he was "a pimp . . . whose only motivation was to make as much money as possible through the exploitation of others".

"He was a pimp selling persons for his own selfish needs," she said.

Arguing for a fine, defence barrister Sarah Thompson cited the cases of Fitzgerald inquiry figures Ann Marie Tilley and Warren Armstrong who she said had not gone to jail for prostitution.

Ms Thompson said Turner was not involved in sexual slavery and ensured a greater level of health and safety for his "girls" than that afforded to legal sole operators.

Turner had also been hit with a $136,000 tax bill after the Australian Taxation Office disputed his treatment of prostitutes as sub-contractors.

Ms Thompson said Turner had five children to support, including 10-year-old twins who were conceived while he was in jail for burglary offences in his native New Zealand.

Magistrate Gary Finger called for a pre-sentence psychological report and reserved his decision until June 26.