West Midlands Police officer and sister helped run London brothels

Raheela Ali and her husband Nassar Ali had pleaded not guilty at Warwick Crown Court to conspiring to manage or assist in the management of brothels and conspiring to launder the proceeds from them.

Her brother, West Midlands officer Pc Osman Iqbal, had also denied the charges and a further offence of possessing cocaine with intent to supply it to brothel customers.

But Iqbal, aged 36, whose home address in Birmingham cannot be given, changed his pleas on all three charges to guilty just days before the trial began earlier this month.

Nasser Ali, aged 50, of Buxton Road, Ilford, Essex changed his pleas to guilty part-way through the trial – but Raheela, aged 44, of the same address, maintained her innocence.

On the second day of their deliberations the jury found her guilty.

The jury had heard that four other people had pleaded guilty at earlier hearings to conspiring to the brothel conspiracy and possessing cocaine with intent to supply it.

They included Jennifer Williams, aged 31, of Furlong Lane, Cradley Heath along with Talib Hussain, 33, of Douglas Avenue, Hodge Hill, Birmingham, his brothers Atif, 26, and Asri Hussain, 24, both of Silver Birch Close, Saltley.

Giving evidence for the prosecution, Jennifer Williams said she had first met Talib while she was working at a sauna in Birmingham in early 2012, and he took her to the first brothel which had been set up in Bentinck Street in London.

She went there as a 'working girl' as the brothel aimed to cash in on the build-up to the 2012 Olympics, and she later moved to a larger premises in Tower Court where she became the 'maid' in charge of the girls around the time the Olympics began.

Taxi drivers would be paid £150 for each client they took to the brothel, and the clients would pay £300 an hour per girl, with some of them running up bills of thousands of pounds.

Brothel customers could also buy cocaine for £100 a gram, although Williams said they actually got only half a gram, and she estimated they would sell 'a least half a kilo a week.'

Mr Linehan said they were all part of 'an organised crime group' working together to run brothels in the West End of London, which attracts huge numbers of people from the UK and abroad.

They will also be sentenced at a later date.