An Irish man has been jailed for running a prostitution business in Ireland from a vicarage in a Welsh village.
Cardiff Crown Court was told Thomas Carroll, who is originally from Co Carlow, controlled up to 70 woman from his home in Wales in a bid to stay “under the radar” from gardaí.
Carroll (48), his wife Shamiela Clark (2), and his daughter Toma Carroll (26), were sentenced today after admitting money laundering.
Thomas Carroll and Clark also pleaded guilty to conspiring to control prostitutes, including women trafficked into Ireland from Portugal, Venezuela, Brazil and Nigeria.
Thomas Carroll was jailed for seven years, Clark for three and a half years. Toma was jailed for two years but was freed immediately because of time spent in custody awaiting trial.
The court heard Thomas Carroll and Clark moved their “headquarters” to Castlemartin, Pembrokeshire, after the Garda uncovered the prostitution ring running in the Republic and Northern Ireland.
“They were living in a quiet, rural hamlet in Pembrokeshire,” prosecutor Robert Davies said. “The property they were renting was an old vicarage. No-one living in the hamlet had the faintest idea what was going on in their midst. The move had the advantage of making it a great deal more difficult for the Garda to investigate what was happening and allowed them to stay under the radar.”
The court heard €1.1 million was placed in Toma Carroll’s bank account in one year. She forwarded the money to her father. The prostitute would charge €140 for 30 minutes, but 75 per cent of the cash would go to the Carrolls.
The profits were spent on property in Ireland, Wales, Bulgaria, South Africa and Mozambique.
“It was a very lucrative, tax-free enterprise,” Mr Davies said.
The court heard women would be sent from their home country with promises of education or steady jobs. Some went through witchcraft rituals which involved killing animals and one teenage girl was even placed in a coffin so she “experienced the fear of death”, the court was told.
Women arrived in Ireland via Britain or Europe and were “soon put to work” in rented apartments across Ireland.
The court was told they were frequently moved around flats in 15 towns in the Republic and three in the North to provide clients with “variety”.
Gardaí uncovered the business in 2006. When Carroll was questioned, he boasted to officers, the court heard. “Ireland is very beneficial at the moment. It’s a sex-starved country and always has been,” he said. “It’s the same as drug dealing, but not as rough. It saves rapes and child molestations. It gives people somewhere to go.”
Carroll and Clarke then moved to west Wales and expanded the business.
However the Serious Organised Crime Agency, Dyfed Powys Police and the Garda were carrying out undercover surveillance. A SOCA officer overheard a phone conversation on a train where Clark gave clients directions to sex workers.
Judge Neil Bidder told Carroll and Clark: “You made huge profits from the women who were exploited. You had no care for those women and you were both prepared to profit from their unhappy trade.”