PROSTITUTION is legal in Britain, but a number of related activities, including soliciting in a public place, kerb crawling, owning or managing a brothel, pimping and pandering, are crimes.

But, earlier this year the government released a report about so-called “pop-up brothels”, which are often set up in residential properties using short-term leases and allow groups to keep a step ahead of police and retain control over the women.

The results of the government’s inquiry was that Greater Manchester Police had identified 324 potential new brothel addresses since March, 2015, and linked these brothels to human trafficking in several cases.

Detective chief inspector Denise Pye, of GMP’s Organised Crime and Modern Slavery Coordination Unit, said: “When it comes to sexual exploitation there appears to be a business model.

“There is usually a main person or group of people who are top managers. They would generally be in the country of origin of the females but visit the country where the activity is taking place.

“Under that there will be managers who have responsibility of areas of the country and housing of the females, including recruitment and travel. Lower in the model there will be people who complete other duties, such as advertising on websites and travel when bookings are made to hotels, etc.”