UP TO 70 Hungarian women may have been brought into Britain and Ireland by a crime gang to work as prostitutes, a court in Belfast heard yesterday.
Police disclosed the suspected scale of the alleged prostitution ring and also confirmed further searches and arrests were planned in Dublin, Cork and Galway.
Details emerged as a restaurant owner was remanded in custody charged with two counts of controlling prostitution for gain.
Matyas Pis (37), a Hungarian national, Gaybrook Lawns, Dublin, booked flights into Dublin for two women and then drove them to Belfast to work as escorts, it was alleged. He was arrested and charged after handing himself in at a police station in the city on Monday.
Belfast Magistrates Court heard the Hungarian embassy had contacted the Metropolitan Police about a woman who had gone to work in a restaurant but allegedly had been forced into a brothel to work as a prostitute.
Officers were asked to intervene amid fears that she may have been the victim of human trafficking, a detective said.
She had arrived in Dublin from Bratislava, Slovakia, with another woman before they were allegedly taken into Northern Ireland by Mr Pis on March 14th.
The court was told he was contacted by gardaí and instructed to go to the PSNI.
However, the detective said that before handing himself in, Mr Pis went to a flat in the city’s Titanic Quarter which was being used as a brothel and cleared any evidence.
Both women were taken to specialised police facilities to be debriefed. They claim to have been working as prostitutes, with services advertised on a local escort website, according to the investigating officer.
Bags of condoms, other sexual paraphernalia, hundreds of euro and a notebook containing the prices for services offered were recovered from Mr Pis’s car, the court was told.
Opposing bail due to concerns over possible flight and interference with witnesses, the detective claimed the women were victims in fear of a suspected organised crime gang.
“A co-accused in Dublin has stated as many as 70 Hungarian females may have been facilitated entry to the UK and Dublin.”
Defence lawyer Eamonn O’Connor said Mr Pis denied the charges. He said his client claimed to have acted “out of the goodness of his own heart” and because he was in love with one of the women.
Mr Pis was refused bail due to the risk of fleeing and any further offences being committed.
He was remanded in custody to appear again via video-link next month.