A SEX trafficker who forced Thai women to work like slaves in two brothels has had her sentence cut at the appeal court.

Atchara Nualpenyai, of Perth Road, Gants Hill, ran a brothel above Chicken Spot in Wanstead High Street, as well as one below her own flat, where women brought to the UK to work in the sex trade were forced to see dozens of clients each day.

She was sentenced to six-and-a-half years at Croydon Crown Court last July after admitting controlling prostitution and sex tracking offences, a sentence cut to five years by judges at London's Court of Appeal yesterday (March 10).

Judge Jeremy Roberts QC, sitting alongside Lord Justice Stanley Burnton and Mr Justice Davis, condemned Nualpenyai's activities but reduced the sentence as they said it did not take into account her pleading guilty.

On January 21 last year Nualpenyai was arrested while in Ilford town centre and officers discovered £2,000 cash along with diaries containing the daily work records of the women.

Two passports for young Thai women were also found, along with 20 ecstasy tablets. One of the passports was for a woman in her 20s who was discovered in the brothel below Nualpenyai's flat.

The women were being forced to work like slaves to pay off huge debts to Nualpenyai, supposedly incurred for bringing the women to the UK.

Ahead of the original trial, a police spokesman said that as well as running the brothels, Nualpenyai played a large part in trafficking the women into the country specifically to work as prostitutes.

He said: “Each case appears to follow a similar pattern. The victims, all of Thai origin, are put into contact with Nualpenyai while in their home country.

“She would then pay a criminal associate a fee to traffick the women to the UK. On arrival in London they are met by Nualpenyai, who then took them to one of the brothel premises.

“Their passports would be removed and they would be made subject to contracts to pay debt bondages, typically in the region of £30,000.

“The women were forced to work every day, sometimes being sent to other brothels in London and even as far as Bristol.”