A PIMP who made £500,000 from a brothel just yards from a police station has been ordered to pay back just a fraction of his ill-gotten gains.

Call centre worker Mark Cass set up the Thai "exotic massage parlour" in Darlington town centre and even registered it with Darlington Borough Council in 2002.

The booming business earned him an average of £166,000 a year, and his six staff - aged between 26 and 36 - earned enough to send lump sums home.

He paid his brother £300-a-week as manager of the women and was open about what he was doing because he did not think he was breaking the law.

But the trade was rumbled by immigration officials and undercover police officers were called in - finding the girls were charging for sex.

Cass, of from Norton, near Stockton, was jailed for a year in 2006 at Teesside Crown Court after he admitted living off the earnings of prostitution.

The 41-year-old, who now works as a long-distance lorry driver, has been ordered to pay back £25,000 under Proceeds of Crime Act legislation.