Jailed: Crouch End madam who ran brothels in Tottenham and Wood Green
16:30 20 February 2012
On the run: Tugba Atila.
MARK LARNER
»A fugitive wealthy brothel madam who managed a string of prostitutes “like a dictator” has been jailed for three years in her absence.
Tugba Atila, 32, took at least £500,000 per year from more than a dozen bordellos she managed in Tottenham and Wood Green.
They were staffed largely by cash-strapped women from eastern Europe who serviced local Turkish men, Southwark Crown Court heard.
The operation was smashed after undercover police carried out “test purchases” at one establishment in Seven Sisters Road, South Tottenham.
Atila, of Ridgeway Gardens, off Hornsey Lane, denied four charges of controlling prostitution for gain and another of possessing criminal property at a trial last month – but is on the run after failing to turn up to court a week later.
Sentencing her in her absence, Judge Michael Gledhill QC said on Friday: “I’m satisfied she ran these premises in a bullying and dictatorial way, exploiting the vulnerability of these women, who for whatever reasons had fallen into prostitution as a means of making a living and who ended up working for her.
Arrogant
“Atila is a brazen, arrogant and haughty young woman who was making huge sums of money out of others.”
Susannah Stevens, prosecuting, said Atila and other brothel managers shared the working girls between 15 addresses. They had to give up to half of their earnings to the brothel’s controller.
Atila managed premises in Avenue Road and Denmark Street, off Park Lane, Tottenham, Seven Sisters Road in South Tottenham and Palmerston Road, Wood Green, between May 2006 and June 2010. A swoop at the Seven Sisters Road address on June 22, 2010, followed a number of visits from two undercover policemen, who met “Jasmine” – Atila’s helper Nesrin Coskun, 26.
She has been jailed for eight months after being convicted of assisting in the management of a brothel.
A £50 note given to Coskun by one of the undercover officers was later found at Atila’s home.
Police uncovered “a significant amount of documentation” following Atila’s arrest, including worksheets, copies of girls’ passports, and receipts “showing lavish spending”.
Bogus cleaning firms called Sparkling Cleaners and Spotless Cleaning were used to cover the activities, the court heard.
Atila denied all five charges but was convicted.
The judge made a confiscation order in the sum of £6,084.
