A BROTHEL owner who could be forced to hand over hundreds of thousands of pounds to police made his money by legitimately wheeling and dealing in property, a court heard.

Defence counsel for John Middleton, who ran The Pleasure Zone in High Northgate, Darlington, claimed police assumed that houses he had bought were paid for by "tainted" money, even though there was nothing to suggest this.

In fact, he had built a profitable sideline in buying and selling more than 20 different properties over the past 40 years, he said.

Middleton, 61, was jailed for six months in April last year for two offences of living off prostitution following an undercover police operation in which officers posed as Pleasure Zone customers to seek sexual services.

As well as the Pleasure Zone, he owned a brothel in Newark, Nottinghamshire, and an escort service.

Middleton, who is said to have benefited by £1.76m from the proceeds of his crime, could lose more than £800,000 under confiscation proceedings brought by police under the 1988 Criminal Justice Act.

Yesterday, at a resumed confiscation hearing at Teesside Crown Court, Middleton's barrister Chris Morrison said he had built up a very substantial nest egg through investing in property and selling it on for a profit since the early 1960s.

This meant that he had more than enough assets available to buy legitimately the home he shared with his wife Lesley, the £420,000 Barrenthwaite Hall, near Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria.

Turning to the Pleasure Zone, Mr Morrison said there were "bundles and bundles" of receipts for purchases of erotica such as lingerie and sex toys which corresponded exactly with details kept in weekly sales registers for the business.

He said it was perfectly feasible that sales income from the Pleasure Zone was as a result of legitimate business activity.

Detective Constable Paul Gardiner, of Durham Police, who was cross-examined by Mr Morrison, said under confiscation laws the onus was on Middleton to prove how he had come by his money - which he had failed to do.

The hearing, which continues, has heard how Middleton used aliases to buy properties. He is also said to have had 14 bank accounts in various names and timeshares in Florida and Portgual.