A PROSTITUTION ring running brothels across Essex and Suffolk was smashed after police were tipped off by people living nearby, it has been claimed.

Police officers launched a surveillance operation after complaints were made about different women moving into the premises every few weeks and a steady stream of male visitors, Ipswich Crown Court was told.

Police looking for a missing Polish woman raided a flat in Firmin Close, Ipswich, and found three women on the premises, including one dressed in just her underwear who and had been having sex with a naked man in one of the bedrooms, Charles Myatt, prosecuting, said.

On another occasion an investigator from the Department of Work and Pensions rang a number a number in an advert for adult services and was directed to the flat in Firmin Close.

He went to the premises with two police officers and the door was opened by a woman in her underwear. Inside they found another woman wearingjust her underwear and in the bedrooms discovered lubricants, condoms and tissues. “There were clear signs the premises were being used to sell sexual services,” alleged Mr Myatt.

A resident of a flat in the same block allegedly heard a man talking outside his flat in the early hours of the morning saying he had “a good time upstairs with a girl”, Mr Myatt said.

Police were alerted to an alleged brothel in Gladstone Road, Ipswich, after a retired man who had lived in the road for 30 years noticed that groups of women with baggage were arriving at premises in the road every six weeks.

When officers raided a property in George Williams Close, Colchester, the door was opened by a scantily dressed woman and in one of the bedrooms police found a man who admitted paying for sex.

In a communal living room police found �60 on a table which according to a price list was the going rate for 30 minutes of sexual services, said Mr Myatt.

He alleged that police found evidence that further alleged brothels were being run at premises in Foxhall Road and London Road in Ipswich.

Before the court are Alexsander Sochacki, 41,of The Admirals, Harwich, Eliza Bryll, 23, of Wells Crescent, Chelmsford, Jagoda Kukielka, 25, of Notley Road, Braintree, Anna Joskowska, 24, of Dumbarton Road, Ipswich and Magdelana Pacula, 22, of Stroud. They have all denied conspiring together and with others to manage or assist in the management of brothels between November 2008 and July 2010.

Mr Myatt alleged that each of the defendants had played a role in the running of the brothels such as sourcing suitable accommodation, organising the payment of rent and council tax, setting up websites and advertising or acting as drivers. The trial which is expected to finish next month continues today.