A BROTHEL owner, who was jailed for a year for running a North-East prostitution racket, has had his sentence cut by three months.

John Middleton, 61, employed up to 20 prostitutes at the Pleasure Zone sex shop in Darlington and in a caravan on the A1 near Bedale, North Yorkshire.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of living off the earnings of prostitution and was jailed at Teesside Crown Court in February for a total of 12 months.

Yesterday, his barrister, Chris Morrison, successfully argued at the Court of Appeal in London that the nine-month sentence imposed for the first offence was excessive and it was cut to six months.

Mr Justice Treacy, sitting with Lord Justice Tuckey and Sir Richard Tucker, said the three-month reduction might appear to be "tinkering" but it represented one third of the original sentence.

He noted Middleton, formerly of Barrenthwaite Hall, Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria, was a man of good character who had admitted his crimes.

And he added that the case did not have aggravating features such as the use of force, coercion or corruption.

The women involved were adults who acted voluntarily and there was no evidence of disruption to neighbours.

But he noted it was a well-organised operation with perhaps up to 20 women working in the Pleasure Zone massage parlour and Middleton had sought to benefit in a significant way by deliberate law breaking.

Mr Justice Treacy refused to change the three-month sentence for the second offence because it happened when Middleton was on bail for the first offence, in the first two weeks of March 2003.

Middleton's crimes were uncovered after police officers visited the upstairs parlour and were offered sexual services as well as massages.

His assets of almost £1m have been frozen and they will be the subject of a confiscation hearing at the end of August.