The Golders Green-based boss of a multi-million pound vice empire, who trafficked dozens of women into Britain to work as prostitutes at high-class brothels, was jailed for five years on Friday.

Malaysian Hue Thi Thanh, 43, and his lover Mee Pang, 25, of Golders Green Hotel, Golders Green Road, enticed Oriental girls to the UK to work in their string of brothels across the country.

Not all the brothel workers were coerced, but Southwark Crown Court heard how one Malaysian woman, 23, was talked into coming to London for a sightseeing' trip by her ex-boyfriend. Instead, she was taken to a brothel in Kensington, where she was immediately told to work as a prostitute to pay off her £3,000 debt' to Thanh.

Up to 16 girls worked in each of three brothels in London and Birmingham, charging up to £70 for 30 minutes, £40 of which would be pocketed by Thanh. Some of the girls slept with up to 50 men a week, netting Thanh more than £2 million in less than 18 months.

Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC said Thanh, who with Pang had admitted conspiracy to traffic women in the UK for sexual exploitation, enjoyed strict and ruthless control' as head of the operation.

Sentencing him, he said: "You also personally benefited to a very large extent. The operation was on a huge scale - it was very big business and enormous sums of money were involved. At the very least the women were under very strict instruction as to the manner in which they should behave."

After being contacted by the coerced victim, vice squad detectives mounted a surveillance operation on the brothels over 18 months and tracked the couple's movements, but only discovered the extent of Thanh's empire upon his arrest, on May 10 this year.

Thanh's right-hand man, Kenny Low, 50, of Denman Street, Mayfair, was jailed for three-and-a-half years; while other gang members received sentences of between 12 and 15 months.

The judge also recommended Thanh and two others be deported. Pang is being treated for a suspected brain tumour.