Police detained six Romanian prostitutes yesterday following raids on two brothels in London.
Two women were found in a semi-detached house two doors away from a church in Harrow, north west London, while another four were caught in a flat above a charity shop near Rayners Lane Tube station.
‘Crystal’, 26 and a mother-of-three, was caught having sex with a client when police arrived at the first property.
She said she left her toddler twins and eight-month-old baby with a nanny while she worked a 12 hour shift.
Speaking to the Daily Express, she said: ‘I left Romania because it is very bad and here I can earn good money – sometimes £2,000 a week.
‘I do it for a better life for me and my children. When I am with a customer the only thing I think about is my children.’
She added that she didn’t want to stay in London, and was only raising enough money to move back home and start a business.
In the second brothel ‘Sally’, 24, who has a four-year-old son, said she needs the money to survive, but tells her boyfriend she works as a cleaner because otherwise he would kill her.
All the women said they had left behind abject poverty in Romania for a better life in the UK, and claimed they had looked for legitimate work but were turned down because of their race.
Police closed the brothels, but only gave the women formal warning as they are all here legally and it is unlikely that any of their clients would testify against them leading to criminal charges.
Officers also found a stash of illegal tobacco and alcohol worth thousands of pounds in separate raids on several corner shops.
Harrow has become a magnet for Eastern European immigrants to the UK, with 5,000 already said to be living in the borough.
