A former couple who ran a “sexual conveyor belt” of prostitution across the south east are facing jail after making more than £100,000.

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.

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

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 today.

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 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.

Taxi driver Wing Yeun, from Hong Kong, was also charged in connection with the case but was acquitted by the jury.

Detective Inspector Andy Richardson said: “This has been a complex and lengthy investigation where vulnerable women were trafficked into the UK for the purposes of prostitution.

“Often the women were moved to different towns around the South East where hotel rooms were booked for them, and then they were told who they would be seeing and what services they had to offer; they had no say in any of this.

“We were able to show the hundreds of hotel and adult website bookings the defendants made, and recovered numerous mobile telephones, SIM cards and hotel room keys as well as other key evidence in searches.

“This was effectively a well organised and structured business which made the defendants thousands of pounds, as was seen from their bank accounts.”

All three will be sentenced at the Old Bailey at a later date.