Cornwall takeaway owner jailed for trafficking women
- Published
Officers seized more than £38,000 from bank accounts and containers of cash found at Wong's home
A man has been jailed for trafficking women and exploiting them to work in brothels that he managed.
Sean Wong, 34, from Redruth in Cornwall was sentenced to seven years in jail, at Truro Crown Court.
He previously admitted managing brothels in Truro, Cornwall and Plymouth, Devon and two offences of human trafficking.
Judge Simon Carr told Wong: "What you were engaged in was modern slavery." He said Wong's business was "despicable".
Wong, of Tresaderns Road, Redruth, ran brothels on New Bridge Street, Truro, and Battery Street, Plymouth, between October 2017 and February 2018.
Two Chinese women were found at the Truro brothel
Police raided the Truro address in January 2018 and found two Chinese women there.
One of the women told officers she had paid money in China on the promise of receiving work in the health and beauty sector in the UK.
When she arrived, her contact did not meet her at Heathrow airport, and she later had her passport stolen in China Town, London.
A man offered to help her, but only if she worked as a prostitute.
She was later trafficked to Plymouth, and then to Truro to work for Wong.
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He was first arrested by Devon and Cornwall Police in September 2018 and a number of victims were offered specialist support.
One of the women found in Truro told officers she had paid money in China on the promise of receiving work in the health and beauty sector in the UK
Officers seized more than £38,000 from bank accounts and containers of cash found at his home.
Judge Carr told Wong: "You did this to make money. It was a potentially lucrative business but a despicable one".
Wong was sentenced to seven years for two counts of people trafficking, and four years for two counts of managing a brothel.
Det Sgt Steve Moorcroft, from the Serious and Organised Crime Team, said after the case he was "extremely pleased to have secured one of the first convictions for the Devon and Cornwall Police in relation to human trafficking".