THE Chinese takeaway boss accused of running brothels in Worcester and three Black Country towns has been convicted by a majority verdict at Worcester Crown Court.

Fei Zhang, who had denied conspiracy to traffic for the sex trade and conspiracy to control prostitution, was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on Friday.

Judge Alistair McCreath refused an application for a pre-sentence report on 39-year-old Zhang, of Cavendish Gardens, Barking, Essex.

He said it would not help because a sentence of custody of considerable length was inevitable.

Zhang, who was convicted on an 11-1 majority by a jury of six men and six women after they had retired for nearly six hours at the end of a three-week trial, will be sentenced with Su Zhen Xu, 30, who has admitted conspiracy to control prostitution and conspiracy to launder money.

She was arrested at a brothel in Dudley.

The court was told that police in an investigation code-named Operation Harmony raided brothels in Broad Street, Worcester, Kingswinford Road, Dudley, Darlaston Road, Walsall, and Stafford Road, Wolverhampton, on May 21 last year.

The premises were thinly disguised as massage parlours or escort agencies, said Jonathan Gosling, prosecuting.

The girls were mostly from China and Thailand and were illegally in Britain.

Zhang operated a "chicken house" system whereby the girls were regularly moved around the brothels so that they were disorientated and could not make roots.

The girls were not allowed to keep any money until they had paid off a £25,000 bond which was taken out when they came to Britain.

Mr Gosland said it was estimated that Zhang's enterprise grossed £500,000 a year.

Many of the girls had been lured to Britain with promises of jobs in restaurants.

Zhang, alleged by the prosecution to be having an affair with Su Zhen Xu, claimed that he had never been to Worcester or the West Midlands and ran a genuine business in his home town.