As brothels try to blend in with well-heeled neighbourhoods, you could be the first line of defence in stopping a pop-up prostitution racket from operating in your street. Reporter Guy Bell examines the issue.

Vulnerable young women are being exploited for sex within prostitution rings and pop-up brothels.

Many are recruited from overseas to carry out sex acts for cash which is handed over to a ring leader or pimp.

In August, shocked parents learned a brothel operating just metres away from a primary school and nursery was raided and shut down.

While police work hard behind the scenes to put a stop to the exploitation of vulnerable women, this special report could help you identify the telltale signs of a brothel.

Prostitution is not illegal in the UK, but running a brothel is against the law and women across the county are working as slaves in domestic sex dens.

A pop-up brothel is often created in a newly acquired property privately rented in towns or cities rather than a rural location.

Homes are often limited in their furnishings and may even look as though nobody lives there. Budget hotels or holiday properties are also sometimes targeted by those running brothels.

A big sign of illicit encounters is multiple women living under one roof or a large number of women being brought to and taken from the property.

A brothel may also have lots of male visitors who do not stay for a prolonged period of time.

Hotels are also targeted by ring leaders and only last week, a former couple were convicted of running a “sexual conveyor belt” of prostitution across the South East.

Malaysian Hong Chin and ex-partner 44-year-old Li Wei Gao trafficked women into their prostitution ring between 2013 and 2015 before police shut their operation down.

Along with Chin’s then-lover Ting Li Lu, 47, from Southsea, Hampshire, the pair were convicted of conspiracy to control prostitution for gain by a jury at the Old Bailey on Thursday.

The court heard how Chin, 45, made a total of 92 hotel reservations through Booking.com at hotels across Sussex and Kent, including Maidstone.

A total of 19 victims, all from South East Asia, were identified as being exploited at hotels across the South East.

Detectives scoured hours of CCTV to find the defendants escorting women to hotels around the country while also gathering other evidence from adult websites and booking records.

The women were sent to perform sexual services all over the south of England and customers paid in cash on arrival with sums being channelled into the accounts of takeaway employee Chin, of Ashtead, Surrey and Gao, of Esher, Surrey.

All three were convicted of conspiring to control prostitution for gain and conspiring to traffic people for sexual exploitation into the UK and will be sentenced at the Old Bailey later this year.

Police raided a house in Stagshaw Close, Maidstone, in August after complaints from residents it was being used for prostitution.

Two women were arrested on suspicion of running the business, while five other women were arrested for the same offence at a property in Lower Boxley Road the same day.

Officers served a closure notice and, after a case at Maidstone Magistrates’ Court, a closure order was granted.

It is the first time in Kent such an order has been granted under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

Sergeant Nick Hatcher, of the Maidstone Community Safety Unit, said at the time: “This shows the effectiveness of neighbourhood engagement.

“Residents reported an issue to both the police and the local council and we have taken appropriate action.

“A closure order is not sought lightly but in this case the problems reported by the community were sufficient to justify this course of action.

“The closure will prevent anyone other than the owner entering the property for a period of three months.

‘We will continue to actively work with partners to pursue orders on other properties if they are associated with on-going incidents connected to sexual offences, anti-social behaviour or drug activity.

“My message to residents is simple: if you have concerns about an address where anti-social behaviour or criminal activity is happening please phone us.”

All those arrested have now been released while the investigation continues.

Lithuanians Romas Drulia and Tomas Ziemys were both recently jailed for tricking women into applying for fake jobs before withholding their passports and keeping them as sex slaves. They were known to be operating at least 10 brothels across Maidstone, Malling, Medway and London.

Judge Jeremy Carey commented during sentencing: “This kind of sex trade is a blight on neighbourhoods.”

And last year 64-year-old Margaret English, from Bromley, was convicted of helping to run a brothel in a flat in College Road, Maidstone, despite protestations that she was merely the cleaner. The madam, Brazilian Francileide De Deus Santos, was given a police caution.