UP to 10 men a day were turning up at a Worcester flat to pay for sex, a judge was told.

Belinda Weston managed the business venture and shared the profits with prostitute Wendy Bristow.

The women – who had been best friends for many years – travelled together each day to the flat from their homes in Wolverhampton.

Customers were charged up to £80 for sex acts after being lured there by an advert in a local magazine offering “massage”, prosecutor Delroy Henry told Worcester Crown Court.

But residents in Malvern Road, St John’s, complained to police and the ground floor flat was put under surveillance.

A raid by officers on May 29 last year discovered two customers on the premises.

Weston, aged 46, of Queen’s Road, pleaded guilty to controlling prostitution for gain between December 2007 and May last year.

She and Bristow, 41, of Granville Road, both denied a second charge of keeping a brothel and were given not guilty verdicts.

Judge Alistair McCreath discharged Bristow and fined Weston £500 with £500 costs.

Weston must disclose her assets by April 3 for confiscation of her profits at a hearing the following month.

The judge said: “It is completely unacceptable to set up what was, effectively, a brothel in a respectable, residential neighbourhood.

“The people who lived there were distressed by all the traffic it caused. It was painfully obvious why these men were going there.”

But the judge accepted it was a shared business venture in which no one had been exploited.

The flat, leased by Weston, was monitored by covert CCTV cameras for three weeks.

They filmed men calling from five to 30 minutes at a time, said Mr Henry.

Weston took phone calls from customers, banked the takings, and acted as security for Bristow by being in an adjoining room.

Mr Henry said the brothel charge could not be sustained on a technicality.

In law, a brothel has to have two prostitutes working on the premises. Weston, who did not have a criminal record, made candid admissions to police.

Joe Kieran, defending, said Weston took “a passive role” but Bristow had “previous work experience in this medium”.

The women shared the profits equally from a business which was launched when they both had little income.

Mr Kieran said Weston, who now works as a delivery driver, deeply regretted her behaviour.

He said she wanted to apologise to any residents who were caused offence.