A THAI prostitute yesterday admitted managing a brothel, one of three smashed in a series of police raids in a North-East town last year.

Woranut Brown ran the massage parlour, in Duke Street, Darlington, for five weeks in September and October last year.

The brothel offered massages and sexual services from the Thai women, and Brown was paid £80 a week to manage the business.

It was closed after a police raid in October, when a man seen leaving the premises confessed to having paid for sexual services.

Police last night told The Northern Echo the raid was "inextricably linked" to the closure of two other brothels in Darlington last year, when immigration officials and police raided properties in Victoria Road and Gurney Street, after a lengthy surveillance operation.

Three men have since been sentenced for their part in running the brothels, and six Thai women were arrested. Several have been deported.

Brown passed the brothel takings on to the owner, a West Midlands businessman.

Last night, it was revealed that police know the identity of the owner - but no charges could be brought against him due to insufficient evidence.

At Darlington Magistrates' Court yesterday, Brown admitted her duties included answering the door and telephone, collecting money, and acting as a prostitute herself "when the mood took her".

Brown, who was accompanied in court by a translator, was told by magistrates she would not face prison.

Graham Hunsley, for Brown, said: "Different cultures view provision of sexual services in different ways. Some cultures are much more open than our own. She knows what she did is illegal here, elsewhere in the world it would not carry the same degree of condemnation or illegality as it does here."

Brown, of Coniscliffe Road, Darlington, will be sentenced on September 5, and faces a community penalty.