Sydney mother forced Thai women into prostitution

By court reporter Jamelle Wells

Posted 07/30/2010

A Sydney mother who forced 11 Thai women to work as prostitutes to help pay off her mortgage has been jailed for at least 13 months.

In March the 48-year-old pleaded guilty to bringing 11 women to Australia from Thailand for the purpose of sexual servitude between August 2005 and April 2008.

She also pleaded guilty to immigration offences.

The NSW District Court heard the women were forced to work off a debt they owed the woman for bringing them to Australia. She sent them to brothels in Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong, Adelaide and Perth.

It heard the woman paid an agency in Thailand $20,000 to supply the women who knew what sort of work they would be doing.

In imposing a minimum jail sentence of at least 13 months, Judge Helen Murrell said the woman was unlikely to reoffend.

She gave her a maximum sentence of two years and three months.

The court heard the offender was born in Thailand and became an Australian citizen in 1994.

She had worked in Thai restaurants and as a receptionist and sex worker in brothels since moving to Australia.

During her sentencing submissions yesterday, the woman said she used the money from the prostitutes to support her teenage daughter and pay the mortgage on a unit she brought at Lakemba in Sydney's south-west in 1994.

The woman sobbed in the dock where she sat with an interpreter.

With time already served, she will be eligible for parole in August 2011.

From: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/30/2969262.htm