Convict ran brothel on days out of jail

Prison staff who thought Rashpal Singh was working as a tyre fitter are understood to have failed to check on where he was spending his time.

Not a single phone call was made to the company where he said he was employed to find if his claims were genuine.

Singh was only caught after a member of the public saw girls congregating at his home with men and tipped off the police.

When officers raided the house they found £2,000 cash in Singh’s pocket and a large amount of cannabis, a court heard.

Singh had served fewer than two years of a six-year sentence for aggravated burglary when he was given day release from 5.30am to 9pm to work as part of a reintegration programme.

Officials at Moorland Open Prison in Doncaster, South Yorks, believed he was working eight and a half hours, six days a week and spending the rest of the time travelling on public transport to and from the job 20 miles away in Rotherham.

But Sheffield Crown Court was told that instead he was using his days to recruit Eastern European vice girls and running the brothel at his Rotherham home.

On Thursday he was jailed for a further two years on top of his existing sentence after pleading guilty to keeping a brothel.

The Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Alan Goldsack QC, told him: “I suspect the public will be surprised you were allowed out so early in a lengthy sentence.

“The fact that so few checks, if any, were made that you were actually attending the place where you were supposed to be working will add to the concern.” A Prison Service spokesman said: “We don’t comment on individual prisoners. Risk assessments are carried out in accordance with normal procedures, including visits by staff to observe prisoners at work.”

A Crown Prosecution spokeswoman said : “It is rare to come across cases of running a brothel, let alone one where the defendant is serving a prison sentence.

“Singh may have thought he was orchestrating a clever plan but it was only a matter of time before he was caught out.”