Brothel owners banned in Victoria for employing underage prostitutes now running big brothels in Sydney

EXCLUSIVE: Brothel owners banned in Victoria for employing under age prostitutes are now among those running some of Sydney’s biggest brothels.

Liasons is located at 533-537 Glenmore road, Edgecliff.

BROTHEL owners banned in Victoria for employing under age prostitutes have moved across the border and are now among those running some of SydneyÂ’s biggest brothels.

An investigation by The Saturday Telegraph into the city’s biggest legal brothel barons has found four have criminal pasts, with two of them banned from running brothels in Victoria and one who has denied links to the illegal sex trade.

Liaisons brothel owner Mark Gray’s licence was revoked in Victoria for employing an underage prostitute but he still employed a 16-year-old at his Edgecliff brothel after her mother forged the girl’s birth certificate.

Liasons is located at 533-537 Glenmore road, Edgecliff.

The revelations have led to calls for Premier Barry O’Farrell to dust off his election promise and review the licensing laws and probity checks on the owners of NSW’s 400 legal brothels.

“We need licensing to keep criminals out of the legal brothel industry,” said Chris Seage, who investigates illegal brothels for councils and the sex industry.

The call was backed by some of Sydney’s biggest brothel madams. Linda Pickard, who owns La Petite Aroma and Victoria’s Secrets in Chatswood, said: “We definitely need licensing.” Special Minister of State Anthony Roberts’ spokesman said the government was reviewing feedback on the regulation of brothels.

Brothel "Cleopatra" at Wetherill Park.

There are an estimated 200 brothels within 20km of the CBD employing about 1500 girls a night. They have sex with strangers for as little as $130 for half an hour to keep the brothel barons in luxurious homes, driving imported cars and sending their children to private schools.

Mark Gray, who lives with his parents on the Gold Coast, owns two of Sydney’s biggest brothels — The Golden Apple and Liasions. His licence was revoked in Victoria for five years after employing an underage girl.

“I accidentally forgot to follow up and check the identification of a new lady who applied for work,” he said. He was fined but there was no conviction.

Centrefolds at Artarmon.

Four years ago Liasions employed a 16-year-old girl. At the mother’s trial for child prostitution over forging her birth certificate, Judge Paul Conlon described Liasions as “a high class agency, however frequented by low class individuals”. The girl was charged out at $330 an hour and serviced 18 clients in a 13-hour shift.

Mr Gray yesterday said the birth certificate was a perfect copy and the police had not pursued his brothel, only the mother.

Graham Harvey, who owns Centrefolds brothels in Artarmon, Gosford and Albury, was also barred from operating brothels in Victoria in 1996 after receiving a two-year suspended sentence for offences relating to child prostitution.

“I had an issue there 20 years ago, it’s all on the public record,” he said.

Anthony Whaling.

Madison Ashton.

Knox Grammar old boy Anthony Whaling, a builder and entrepreneur with no criminal history, owns the 5Starcity brothel in Cathedral St, Woolloomooloo.

He leases the brothel to Peter Thoo who runs it day-to-day. Three years ago an investigation by the ABC’s Four Corners program allegedly linked the brothel to a sex trafficking ring in Taiwan, but Whaling denied the brothel had any involvement.

“That story was a complete beat-up. The women were overstaying their visas and moved on after two nights. Nothing came of it,” he said. But it is part of the reason why he is in favour of licencing legal brothels.

“I have made submissions to the government but they are not inviting any actual operators onto the panel they are forming to look at it. Why not?” he asked.

Brothel Tiffany's at 99 Albion Street, Surry Hills in Sydney.

In Surry Hills, Tiffanys owner Parrai Bitsikas has an extensive property portfolio including the four Albion St terraces that house the up-market brothel.

He received a 12-month suspended sentence five years ago after agreeing to hide out two friends involved in a shooting. He did not return calls.

Parrai Bitsikas (AKA Parry Bitsikas) does not employ underage prostitutes at his brothel in Sydney and has never operated a brothel in Victoria.

“It’s a business doing pleasure with you,” says the website for Cleopatra’s Gentleman’s Club in Wetherill Park. Its owner Salvatore Lapa lives in a grand estate at Mount Vernon and is a convicted heroin dealer, jailed for 20 years in 1993 for possessing 7.5kg of heroin. He was also convicted of bribing police officers.

He is in favour of licensing: “If you run your place by the law, pay your tax and GST, you should be allowed to work and operate.”

Brothel owner Eddie Hayson.

Linda Pickard. Picture: Sarah Rhodes

Eddie Hayson, owner of up-market Stiletto brothel in Camperdown, has no criminal past but has become a regular in the gossip columns for his extensive gambling debts and horse racing interests.

When the police raided his brothel in 2012 in search of organised criminals, they found nothing but Hayson took the opportunity to declare himself “Sydney’s most honest pimp”.

Like Hayson, Sydney’s female brothel baronesses have not needed to turn to crime to live a lavish lifestyle from their legal businesses.

Police at Eddie Hayson's brothel "Stiletto" in Camperdown.

Ms Pickard believes licensing would clean up the industry. “You get that criminal element in the business … they don’t have the same concern for the safety of women or to make sure that they don’t have drugs in there,” she said.

Catherine O’Malley sends her daughter to a private school and owns a house backing on to Killara golf course, thanks to Rosehill brothel Ma Belle Cheri.

“I do think there are a lot of cowboys in our industry and a lot of dodgy things happen that wouldn’t be allowed in any other industry,” she said. “Licensing would be a good idea if it was done well”

Visy tycoon Richard Pratt’s former lover, escort agency madam Madison Ashton, said: “The Victorian model does not work. It is not a licensing issue, it is a cultural issue. It’s about sex work being a valid career.

“And that’s still a stretch.”