AN officer from Wiltshire Police who is leading the crackdown on human trafficking said police officers visited a brothel in Trowbridge but the signs were not obvious.

Speaking this week, Det Sgt Chris Hitchcock said Wiltshire Police would never allow a brothel to remain open if they knew about it, responding to claims that a brothel in Norwood Court, off Wicker Hill, was allowed to remain open for a decade despite police's knowledge of it.

On Thursday (March 2) mother-of-two Marion Meyer-Smith, of Chepstow, who managed the brothel, pleaded guilty to running it since 2002 and received a 12-month jail term suspended for two years at Swindon Crown Court.

Det Sgt Hitchcock said: “Wiltshire Police do not allow brothels to remain open.

“It was not clear that it was a brothel. I looked back through our records and saw that when officers visited it they dealt with the offences they were called for.

“It’s not always glaringly obvious. Brothels don’t always have a big flashy sign, the signs are sometimes quite subtle.

“Sometimes they are seedy but other times it can be a well-kept bedroom like any other.

“We take these reports very seriously.”

However, the court heard that a letting agent contacted the police to tell them what was going on there around nine years ago and received an acknowledgement from the force.

The police officer, who is part of Wiltshire Police’s intelligence team, explained that the nature of brothels has changed in recent years.

“We see far less static brothels these days but we do see lots of pop-up brothels, they rarely stay in the same place,” he added.

“I’m not aware of any long-term brothels in Wiltshire. If we receive any intelligence, we tackle it.

“In 2015 police set the HEET Team up with the aim of stopping human trafficking and exploitation, which includes brothels.

“Since then there’s been a huge clampdown on modern slavery, which covers everything from exploitation to migrant sex work.

“Wiltshire is now one of the leaders in the South West for this.”