A MAN who admitted keeping a brothel that hired prostitutes was spared jail yesterday after a judge told him the women had felt safe on the premises.

Sentencing Asa Dobbing to a 12-month community order and 120 hours of unpaid work, Judge Beatrice Bolton said the women had been using the premises voluntarily and that there was no coercion or corruption involved.

The brothel, in a flat in Nairn Close, Sunderland, was closed after undercover officers posed as customers.

Dobbing, 29, of East Shore Village, Seaham, east Durham, pleaded guilty to assisting in the management of the premises between March and May 2007. He pleaded guilty on the basis he was helping someone else – an argument the prosecution did not accept.

At an earlier hearing, the court was told the brothel advertised for workers in the situations vacant section of the Daily Sport newspaper, simply stating “staff required north”.

In the massage section of the newspaper the women’s services were advertised as “Sunderland sexy girls”.

One woman who replied to the advert moved from her home near Blackpool.

She told jurors she would entertain up to seven or eight men a day and would charge £60 a time.

In passing sentence, Judge Bolton said: “Whether or not there was someone else behind you is not relevant. I am quite satisfied you were being paid something for doing this and to some extent profiting.

“It may well be your enormous financial difficulties which motivated you to do it.”

She added that the advertisement had only been answered by prostitutes.

Judge Bolton said: “They were working women who knew full well what they were getting into and were voluntarily using the premises.

“There was absolutely no element of coercion, no element of corruption and the control simply amounted to paying a fee for the premises. That was not collected in an aggressive manner whatsoever.”

Dobbing will face a proceeds of crime hearing on January 11.