Lawyer, government worker caught up in raid on brothel

A lawyer and a government employee were among three customers caught waiting in a brothel in Yau Ma Tei during a police raid at lunchtime yesterday.

Inside the brothel, in Woosung Street, officers arrested a 19-year-old male and four mainland female prostitutes who had come to Hong Kong last week, police said.

The four-bedroom flat also served as a home for the four prostitutes, who saw many clients a day. Investigations showed that the brothel had been in operation for more than two months.

'It only took in regular customers,' a police source said. 'Clients had to say a secret code to gain access. Each client was charged HK$200 for sex services. The den attracted many customers because of the low price.'

But each prostitute was paid only HK$80 per client, the source said.

There were four surveillance cameras monitoring the area outside the fifth-floor flat and the arrested male had kept watch on a screen inside. He had told police he was paid HK$400 a day to manage the place.