A HUSBAND and wife team from the Gunnersbury Avenue area near Chiswick's border, were convicted of running brothels in Mayfair and Soho and living off immoral earnings, along with another woman from Acton last week. £ million was recovered from a raid on their property.

Guilnara Gadzijeva, 36 years old, an Azerbaijan national and unemployed from Gunnersbury Avenue W5, was sentenced to six years for controlling prostitutes, and 2 years to run concurrently for two charges of false imprisonment.

Her husband, Vethasalem Muruganathan a shopkeeper, also aged 36, a Sri Lankan national was sentenced to three years in total for living off immoral earnings.

Olga Chukanova, aged 30 years old, an unemployed Russian national from High Street, Acton, also received three and a half years for controlling prostitutes at the named addresses.

The three were found guilty on Friday February 27 at Harrow Crown Court following a five month investigation by the Met's Vice Unit into a lucrative crime business involving brothel premises in Mayfair and Soho.

Officers started the investigation code-named Pabail in February 2003 which culminated in a number of premises being raided in July last year. The addresses, which were all in W1, were in Stanhope Row, Greek Street, two separate addresses in Market Mews, and Lisle Street.

Gadzijeva was the driving force behind the operation. She had recruited women from Lithuania, Moldova, and other Eastern European countries, who were duped as to what they were expected to do once they arrived in the UK, expecting to be employed as domestics.

It is believed that through contacts in Eastern Europe, Gadzijeva arranged false identification documents and travel arrangements for the women. She and Muruganathan, would meet the women in the UK, and take them to a holding address in Acton, to be indoctrinated before being made to work as prostitutes.

Once in the UK, Gadzijeva would instruct the women to make bogus asylum applications.

The women were controlled through fear and coercion, if they did not comply, she threatened their families back home.

She also imposed a draconian fine system where the slightest disobedience of house rules would incur a large fine, as well as the debt bondage for their travel to the UK, their rent and housekeeping.

The women had to buy everything through Gadzijeva at inflated prices and this included electricity, water, food and personal effects. Some of the women were in effect working for nothing, except paying off an unending debt to Gadzijeva.

Chukanova was employed to control the day to day running of the premises. The five brothels were lucrative and made several thousands of pounds from the exploitation of the women. The women lived at the brothels and as such, they were open 24 hours a day.

The couple lived a lucrative lifestyle; buying a car with £24,000 in cash and police recovered nearly three quarters of a million pounds at the time of the arrests from Gadzijeva's home address, and from searches of safety deposit boxes.

PC Carlo Narboni, of the Vice Unit said: "These three defendants were ruthless in the way they exploited an immeasurable amount of women. They led a flamboyant lifestyle, and while they were eating a meal at a restaurant costing £1,300, the women were around the corner earning money for them. This conviction shows that we will not tolerate this type of crime."

The investigation was funded by Reflex - the immigration crime task force.