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Documented on the original SlaveryMap (2008–2016). We don’t have a verifiable source on file yet. Know one?
What happened
Oriental Gems was an "online brothel", which specialized in girls from the South East Asia. A gallery on the site showed photographs of more than 60 naked and semi-naked women. Many of them were effectively commodities who had been traded and invested in by "bondholders". Southwark Crown Court heard that Oriental Gems was run by Pongpoj Pitayatanakul, his brother Bordee, and Pongpoj's girlfriend Monthira Duangthip, all from Guildford, Surrey. They employed four men as drivers and assistants: Panya Peakaew, from Paddington, west London, Nopharat Charoenying, and Graipich Vudto, from Bayswater, central London, and Thatri Pornpaditkong, from central London. One specific case is of a woman - advertised on the website as "Helen" – who had been "bought" from her traffickers by a syndicate of two women and a man for £11,000 and then told she would have to pay her "bondholders" £30,000 to win her own freedom. Brian O'Neill, prosecuting, said she effectively had to sleep with 300 men, at £100 a time, to buy herself out of a modern-day form of slavery. The "bondholders", who effectively owned several of the women and expected them to pay off their £30,000 debt, were two women, Jirapha Sriwicha, of Hendon, north London and Sutima Khongpon, and Phanusak Kaewbenjarkarn, both from Streatham, south London. Metropolitan Police’s Chief Superintendent Ian Dyson, in charge of the Clubs and Vice Unit has said, “What is notable about this gang is the level of exploitation that the women had to work under - their debt bondages are the highest we have ever come across - in the region of £28,000.”
Response and intervention
During the raids more than 100 officers searched 19 premises. Fifteen people were arrested as suspects of trafficking women from abroad, the majority from Thailand, and then coercing them to work as prostitutes. By 9 a.m. the morning after the raid, 30 women had been rescued and taken to a specialist center. Three men and one woman were arrested on suspicion of trafficking into and within the UK and 11 others were arrested in connection with trafficking within the UK and controlling prostitution. Ten people were eventually charged with conspiracy to traffic women within the UK for the purpose of sexual exploitation, conspiracy to control prostitution for gain or money laundering. The prosecution later dropped the trafficking charges and all ten pleaded guilty to prostitution and money laundering offenses. Nine of the defendants from Thailand were sentenced to up to two-and-a-half-years in jail for their part in the exploitation, and one received community service. Operation Gib was conducted by the Metropolitan Police’s Clubs and Vice Unit in conjunction with Norfolk Police and with the support of the Surrey Police. Fifteen people were arrested as suspects of trafficking women from abroad as a result of the 19 raids. Thirty women were rescued and taken to a specialist center. So far 30 women have been removed from the addresses and have been taken to a specialist center. The specialist center has been formed specifically for this operation to provide a dedicated care package for the women. The center is staffed with interpreters; non-government support organizations; health workers and officers trained in sexual offenses interview techniques.