A MAN alleged to be behind running a brothel in Worcester that provided sex with oriental women has gone on trial.

Fei Zhang, aged 39, denies conspiracy to traffic for the sex trade and also conspiracy to control prostitution.

Jonathan Gosling, prosecuting, said Zhang, who lives in Barking, Essex, was behind the running of brothels in Worcester, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Dudley and Bath.

He said Zhang, who lived with his wife and child and appeared to lead a normal existence running a Chinese takeaway in his home town, controlled a sex business where properties were earmarked in towns and the women, many of whom had been tricked into prostitution, lived in the properties, where they had to work long days.

"These brothels were thinly disguised behind the façade of massage parlours and escort agencies," he said.

"These women were moved around the brothels so that regular customers could have different girls and also so they could not lay down any roots and make friends, and to leave them disorientated."

"It's known as the chicken house system."

In his opening address, Mr Gosling said four brothels, one of which was in Worcester's Broad Street, were simultaneously targeted by police in raids on March 21 2007, and that on the premises were girls as well as men who looked after them, known as uncles.' These men looked after the brothels, such as cleaning the premises and feeding the girls; they also handled bookings. He said a woman who had admitted a senior role in the brothels was having an affair with Zhang and that sophisticated evidence including using mobile phone technology could prove that Zhang was implicated in the crime at a high level.

He also said Zhang had been identified as being in Worcester on November 28, 2006, when he went to a newspaper to place an advertisement. His phone numbers were found on the application form for the brothel on Broad Street.

The trial is expected to last two weeks.