A confiscation order for £1 has been made against the housewife behind a Fife-based prostitution empire that raked in thousands.
Mum-of-one Ana Calder, 37, and partner Jose Barbosa ran the operation from their flat in Kirkcaldy, making more than £150,000 from brothels in eight towns and cities across the country.
But even though Calder admitted laundering money for the business and living on earnings from prostitution, Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard on Tuesday that a nominal order of just £1 could be made against the 36-year-old under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Barbosa and Calder, both originally from Brazil, set up the sex workers aged 28 to 48 in brothels in Kirkcaldy, Perth, Dundee, Dunfermline, Stirling, Hamilton, Falkirk and Alva.
At a hearing in February this year, Calder admitted that between August 12 2013 and February 20 2014 she did convert and transfer the proceeds of prostitution totalling £16,925.
She was sentenced to 160 hours of unpaid work along with two years’ supervision.
The case called again on Tuesday under the Proceeds of Crime Act, which aims to recoup cash from criminal activity.
Although Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard that the estimated benefit of Calder’s “general criminal conduct” stood at £81,569.14, recoverable assets amounted to just £1.
As such, a confiscation order for £1 was made by Sheriff Christopher Shead in a bid to ensure that the Crown can go back to the courts should Calder obtain any assets in the future and raise the order.
Calder, who arrived in the UK on a tourist visa in 2002 and had a failed marriage to an Englishman, now lives in Windsor, Berkshire, and was not present at Tuesday’s hearing in Kirkcaldy.
The court previously heard how Barbosa, whom Calder met in 2008, rented the flats using a Spanish ID card, a fake letter from an employer and the alias Alex Marques.
The flats were then sublet to the women who were trafficked between them.
The couple charged them for rent and advertised their services online, giving
them names such as “Amazing Gabriella”, “Hot Sara” and “Amazing Julia”.
Police said the pair ran the operation as a team, although prosecutors said the women were not forced into prostitution.
Barbosa was previously jailed for three years last October after admitting trafficking women and transferring money made from crime.
Highlighting the reasoning behind the £1 order, the Crown Office confirmed: “Despite making significant amounts of money from crime, some individuals have no available assets at the time the case against them is proved in court.
“In such cases, a nominal order is made against them for £1.
“This ensures that the Crown can confiscate any assets they obtain in the future up to the amount they made from their criminal activity by making an application to the court to vary the confiscation order allowing these assets to be confiscated.
“It can, in effect, be a financial life sentence, ensuring those who benefited from crime in the past cannot accrue any assets until the money they made is repaid.”
