A pensioner has been convicted of helping to run a Maidstone brothel, after claiming she was just the cleaner.

Margaret English was arrested when police raided Intimacys, based out of a flat in College Road, in October 2014.

At her trial on Friday, the 64-year-old from Bromley told Sevenoaks Magistrates’ Court she did not know prostitutes were working there and that her only contact with clients was answering the door or offering them a cup of tea while they waited.

She said she thought it was a legitimate massage parlour and worked there for £40 a day once a week.

But prosecutor Paul Shaw said it was “extremely unlikely” that English would have failed to notice bags of condoms, sex toys and lubricant stashed in the kitchen and bedroom if she was a cleaner.

When police searched her car they found envelopes of cash and price lists, as well a receipt in her handbag for £770 which had been paid into the bank account of the brothel owner, Francileide De Deus Santos. The Brazilian was given a police caution after admitting her part in the operation when she was arrested.

Giving evidence at an earlier hearing, she said English, known to her as Jenny, was one of three receptionists she hired to manage the day-to-day running of the business.

Miss De Deus Santos said she had met her while they were both working as prostitutes at another brothel in Surrey, four years earlier.

Mr Shaw told the court English helped in the management of the brothel, including booking appointments, opening the door to clients and, on occasions, paying the girls and depositing the daily earnings into a bank account.

Magistrates heard that English’s car had been captured on Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras in College Road 14 times in six weeks, all at similar times, despite her claims that she only worked there once a week.

She said she made the 30-mile commute to take her disabled dog to a hydrotherapy centre near Leeds, and because she preferred Maidstone’s branch of TKMaxx to the one a mile away from her home in Bromley.

But Mr Shaw said she was making it up as she went along, adding: “The explanation we have heard that Miss English was just a cleaner, in my submission, is preposterous.”

But David Nicholson, defending, said: “If anyone was managing this brothel it was Miss Santos and she is not the one sat here as Miss English is but has sat in the dock giving evidence for the crown.”

Returning a guilty verdict, magistrate Tim Bucher said English’s explanation was unacceptable, and adjourned until March for sentencing.