A PROSTITUTION ring run by a woman who dubbed herself the “Ice Queen” has been convicted of operating brothels across Lewisham.
Achareeya Spurr, 49, trafficked women into the UK from Thailand and forced them to work gruelling 14-hour days under brutal conditions.
The mother ran brothels in Distillery Tower – the apartment block that looms over Deptford Bridge DLR station – and another in a flat on Longbridge Way, near Catford.
She and her husband Chin Ping, a British national originally from China, also ran 22 other brothels elsewhere in the capital and the south-east of England.
They were assisted by their two “lieutenants” Ugur Sahin and Sarunyoo Siriwan, who is also Spurr’s son, Woolwich Crown Court heard.
Tom Nicholson, prosecuting, said: “The sex workers were made to work 14-hour days, from 10am to midnight and were paid as little as £50 a day.
“Their passports were taken from them and if they complained they were threatened with being reported to immigration or that their family would be informed of their sex work.”
Jurors heard how the trafficked prostitutes had to have sex with customers even if they did not like them and were only allowed one day off a week – and two days off a month for menstruation.
The leaders of the ring have now been convicted after a five-week trial at Woolwich Crown Court.
In total, the group transported 22 women to the UK from Thailand between January and October last year, with two others brought in from Denmark and Scotland.
The gang leaders were caught after Spurr kicked one of the trafficked sex workers out of the brothel she was living in, driving her into the arms of the authorities.
Spurr, who is originally from Thailand, and her husband splashed out on luxury goods before the police finally caught up with them.
When officers raided the couple’s home in the Isle of Dogs they discovered more than £50k in cash stuffed inside a bag.
They also found Chanel and Louis Vuitton earrings, a Cartier cuff bracelet, a collection of Rolex, Bvlgari and other luxury watches, an Omega receipt for £5.6k, pairs of Gucci and Chanel glasses and shopping receipts for Selfridges.
It is in stark contrast to the pitiful amount the sex workers made, with the leaders capping their pay at £100 a day while they were paying off their “debt” – irrespective of how many customers they saw.
And some days the sex workers received even less, with one woman paid a measly £50 after seeing four customers in a day.
Spurr’s husband Ping – who had a day job at the credit rating agency Fitch Ratings while also working as the ring’s “second in command” – claimed in court that he thought the prostitutes were independent sex workers.
The 56-year-old technology analyst set up and maintained the sex workers’ accounts on the prostitution website AdultWork.
The gang registered the women on the site by uploading pictures of them standing next to a postbox and holding a copy of that day’s newspaper. This is a requirement of the site to prove sex workers are actually in the UK.
The ring controlled the mobile phones linked to the AdultWork profiles and then organised bookings directly with the sex workers via the Telegram messaging app.
In the messages, Spurr used the moniker “Freya Ice Queen” – seemingly inspired by the sorceress character Freya from the 2016 film The Huntsman: Winter’s War.
Meanwhile her lieutenant Siriwan went by the username “Tommy Vercetti” – a reference to the main character in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – in the chats.
Siriwan also helped register the women on AdultWork and organised bookings with them, while fellow lieutenant Sahin picked up the women from the airport and transported them to the brothels.
The sex workers came to the UK after being recruited online. Spurr reached out to women in Thailand through a now-deleted TikTok account called “angelsuk2006”.
She posted Thai-language videos boasting about the money that could be made in the UK, showing piles of cash and highlighting immigration success stories.
Although the women Spurr recruited knew they were being brought to Britain for sex work, they were not aware of the brutal conditions they would face after arriving here, the court heard.
Spurr slapped the workers with a £25k debt when they reached Britain and held them in “debt bondage” until they had paid off the sum through sex work.
She told them the hefty sum covered the costs of flights, tourist visas and other expenses, including efforts to get the workers asylum in the UK.
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Spurr pleaded guilty to conspiring to facilitate the travel of individuals with a view to them being exploited and controlling them in the expectation of financial gain – as well as transferring criminal property.
Ping, Siriwan, 31, and Sahin, 26, were found guilty of the same counts as well as an extra charge of assisting unlawful immigration to the UK.
The trio will be sentenced on September 18, while Spurr is due to appear at another hearing on September 17.