Police raided a flat in a residential area and discovered it was being used as a brothel.

Officers found more than 116 condoms, lingerie, baby oil, a diary containing telephone numbers and £515. A prostitute was in a bedroom with a client.

Yu Liu was jailed for six months after admitting keeping a brothel for prostitution. He was due to be freed having served the sentence on remand.

The prosecution accepted the 22-year-old's basis of plea he had been working at the house in New Street, Ashford, for 10 days and was paid £232 a week with free lodgings.

Liu added he took phone calls and opened the door to customers. He was also responsible for banking the profits.

Prosecutor Martin Yale told Maidstone Crown Court officers went to basement flat on October 15 last year and found a tall gate with a padlock.

Nobody came to the door so the padlock was cut off. Liu was on a mobile phone in the hallway. He said he had recently moved there from Birmingham.

He told officers none of the four women who worked at the brothel at different times did so against their will. He would give them half of the amount they earned, he said.

James Ross, defending, said Liu came from a poor family in China and a rich uncle provided £15,000 for him to come to the UK to study English.

Afterwards, he had a variety of jobs. After injuring his back in a warehouse he helped to manage the brothel.

Judge Martin Joy told Liu: "Keeping a brothel and being involved in the management of a brothel is a serious offence and only a custodial sentence is appropriate."