England Jails Thai Madam

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The following appears in the BANGKOK POST:

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England Jails Extradited Thai Madam

 

(BangkokPost.com, from reports)

 

An affluent Thai woman holding British citizenship, extradited from Thailand after a nine-year court battle, has been sentenced to more than four years in prison on charges of trafficking Thai girls into prostitution in England.

 

Angela Miller, 49, was part of a group which lured Thai girls into Britain to work as prostitutes at massage parlours in Northampton and Leicester. Miller fled to Thailand in 2000 before her trial and was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in her absence.

 

At the trial on Thursday, an uninformed British judge added another nine months to the sentence for her flight, according to the BBC.

 

The broadcaster reported this exchange at the trial:

 

After a six-year legal battle to extradite Miller back to the UK, she was brought before the original trial judge, Richard Bray.

 

Jailing her for an extra nine months, he said: "You were playing for very high stakes here. You lost and you must pay the penalty."

 

Julian Fattorini, defending, said Miller had committed no further crimes while living in Thailand and had spent almost five months in a Thai jail cell with up to 80 other prisoners while awaiting extradition to the UK.

 

"Running a brothel in Thailand, I understand, is not illegal," the judge replied.

 

The judge's misinformation aside, the BBC reported that Miller was first arrested after a raid in 1998 at a massage parlour in Kingsley Park Terrace in Northampton.

 

When she failed to attend a court hearing at Northampton Crown Court, all ports and airports were put on alert for her.

 

Det Con Paul Beck, who tracked Miller to the coastal resort of Pataya, said she would now face a confiscation hearing to get back some of the 500,000 British pounds (about 34.5 million baht, or $944,350) of assets she is thought to own in Thailand.

 

Miller's prostitution gang was masterminded by her husband Ron Miller, now 70, who was jailed for four years in September 2000, the BBC reported

 

The girls were smuggled into Britain through either Heathrow airport or Eurostar using fake passports and then taken to the Millers' two massage parlours.