Home brothels slip past bylaw

Concerns are rising about the number of brothels operating out of homes in Manukau City.

City officials say they have difficulty identifying brothels to see if council brothel rules are being broken.

The Manukau City Council community safety committee last week conducted a preliminary review of the council brothel control bylaw adopted in April last year.

Among the concerns was the number of home brothels in the city and that commercial brothels were operating near Elm Park School in Pakuranga.

The bylaw bans brothels of any size in residential areas. "There are a variety of definitions of what a brothel is and what commercial sexual activity is," said Ian Milnes, the council team leader of health enforcement and licensing.

"To prove it's a brothel you have really got to prove commercial sexual activity has taken place and that is having evidence of the sexual act and money changing hands.

"That ... proves difficult because I am not really in a position to send my officers into a brothel to engage in that activity. I am not prepared to do that ... "

Mr Milnes said the enforcement difficulty had resulted in no action being taken against a number of suspected brothels operating in a residential area near Elm Park School.

"We do investigate. We ask the operators ... They deny it.

"We have our suspicions but we can't prove it. I would be loath to allege that they were indeed working brothels."

The committee chairman, Dick Quax, said councillors were concerned at the number of home enterprise brothels that might be operating in the city.

Before the bylaw was adopted the Prostitutes Collective believed there were 70 to 100 home enterprise brothels operating in Manukau residential areas.

Kate Dickie, regional co-ordinator for the collective, said the number had stayed the same.

The council had been told it would have a problem identifying whether people were being offered clinical or therapeutic massages "or a massage with a little bit of a rub".