A soccer fan who became one of Britain’s most succ

A soccer fan who became one of Britain’s most successful pimps by running a suburban sex-for-sale empire looks set to keep his treasured collection of valuable football programmes.

John Murray Smith heard today (friday) he faces confiscation proceedings later this year over the fortune he pocketed controlling a network of 32 brothels in SE England.

Jailed at London’s Southwark Crown Court for masterminding one of the country’s largest ever red light operations, Smith’s remaining assets await seizure by the Crown as proceeds of crime.

The diehard Glasgow Rangers supporter’s control of prostitutes spanned the Home Counties and London.

In three years his illicit industry had a gross turnover of more than pnds stlng 5 million – and made him a millionaire.

Smith, 35, of Fox Close, Weybridge, was jailed for three years in September last year after admitting living on prostitution between January 1, 1996, and April 8, last year.

The joiner, who paid for his pnds stlng 250,000 home in cash from proceeds, also ran a legitimate and lucrative sideline dealing in rare football programmes.

Police believe much of his fortune has been squirreled away offshore and maintain the secretive defendant is still in control of over pnds stlng 1 million.

However, the highly collectable programmes have been ruled out of the equation.

Judge Christopher Hardy ruled after legal argument that Smith’s benefit should not be judged in terms of the turnover of the illicit operation but the cash that actually passed through his hands.

The judge said it would be ‘Draconian’ to attempt to recover the full pnds stlng 5 million as Smith’s benefit.

Call girls each paid pnds stlng 150 a day to Smith for their use of the brothels – an ‘attractive’ deal for them as they then kept the remainder of their earnings.

Brothels were sited in residential areas in Slough, Watford, Aldershot, Walton-on-Thames, Staines, Chertsea, Croydon, Maidstone, Dartford, Gillingham, and Purfleet.

Advertised in both national and local newspapers, the court was told how vice squad officers noted ‘there were lots of male visitors.

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Charges were put at pnds stlng 50 for straight sex – the most exotic service on offer being a ‘fruit and veg show’ which incorporated the use of whipped cream.

However, such was the demand for sex behind the net curtains of flats and houses Smith rented, one undercover officer waited 90 minutes to see a girl.

Disgruntled at the delay, he never even needed to ‘make his excuses’ but left anyway.

Jailing Smith in the Autumn, Judge Hardy described the operation as ‘sophisticated and well planned’, allowing the defendant to profit on a ‘truly massive scale’.

He described it as one of the largest vice rings ever uncovered by police, stretching from ‘Watford in the north to Slough in the West.

From Aldershot in the south to Maidstone in the East.

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Smith, who distanced himself from the front line by using a string of aliases and employing female managers, laundered profits abroad.

Mr Christopher Hehir, prosecuting, said following the ruling the Crown would still seek a confiscation order of more than pnds stlng one million.

He said it was believed Smith had assets worth more than such a figure and it would not need an assessment of the worth of the valued collection of football programmes.

Smith’s lawyers put their client’s benefit at somewhere between pnds stlng 300,000 and 400,000.

A confiscation hearing is scheduled to take place at the London court on June 5.

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