'Top-end' brothel is just what the doctor ordered

Neil Benson at his medical rooms last April. Picture / Michael Cunningham

A disgruntled doctor plans to open the first licensed brothel in the Far North.

Neil Benson aims to base his new venture in his former medical centre at Coopers Beach.

In the switch from medical practice to the world's oldest profession, it will be called Whalers.

The plan has annoyed some residents, and a local minister fears the brothel might lead local women into prostitution.

Dr Benson closed his Coopers Beach Medical Centre in April last year after a bitter dispute with the Te Tai Tokerau Primary Health Organisation (PHO) over a GP roster covering after-hours care in the Kaitaia and Coopers Beach area.

"The medical centre was a wonderful facility that should have always stayed as a medical practice," Dr Benson said.

"I did everything humanly possible to keep it open, but it wasn't possible because of the lack of support from the PHO, lack of collegial support and community support," he said.

He reopened his medical centre in September but had to close it again because of a lack of funding.

Yesterday, he was granted a brothel operator's certificate for what he says will be an up-market bordello.

He hopes to open the brothel next month but believes an escort service might be running before that.

An industry consultant is helping plan the business. It would employ "beautiful, experienced professional girls" from outside the region and would cater for locals as well as visiting tourists, says Dr Benson.

The idea came after plans to buy a medical practice in Dunedin fell through.

A person in the sex industry had looked at renting the unused medical centre and said it would be a perfect brothel.

'I thought, why don't we run it ourselves? It would be a viable business and I was unemployed."

While he had never considered working in the sex industry, Dr Benson sees similarities between the world's oldest profession and medicine.

"It's about providing a private service and maintaining confidentiality, which is what my medical practice was about - so it's not a big leap, really.

"Everything I have ever done is high quality. The standards of my medical practice were high and that will cross over to the brothel environment."

Dr Benson said the service would cater for the "top end" of the market.

"It will be officially registered as a brothel and it will meet public health criteria," he said.

"It will employ beautiful women who are highly paid in their profession and who know what is expected from them in their line of work."

His wife recognised the proposed brothel was a sound business proposition and his four children also supported the idea, he said.

"It (prostitution) already exists in the community. At least this way it gives sex workers a quality working environment where they are treated well. It means the men that visit the brothel will have some assurance they are getting a higher quality service than they would get elsewhere."

Far North District Council spokesman Rick McCall said the council had fielded an inquiry about the planning requirements for a brothel in the Doubtless Bay area several weeks ago.

However, licence applications were made through the district court, not through the council, he said.

He was not aware of any other licensed brothel in the Far North.

Doubtless Bay resident Janet Brennan said the plan was abominable.

"I never thought he (Dr Benson) would go so low," she said. "I think he's doing it to get back at the community for not supporting his clinic."

Bob Carr, the priest in charge of St Andrews Anglican Church, said he opposed the brothel.

"I think it is unfortunate that sex should be sold for money because I think sex is very important in human life and the basis of family - by using it in this way you are corrupting it."

Mr Carr was prepared to organise a picket outside the brothel if there was enough opposition to the plan.

In contrast, Taipa Tavern manager Terry Mullane supported the plan.

"Some of the old people might jump up and down but it's just a fact of life," he said.

Dr Benson trained as a doctor in Canada and has been practising medicine for the past 18 years. He aims to maintain his registration but will focus mainly on his new business.

Dr Benson acknowledged the proposed brothel was a contentious issue but there had been "a lot of support from the men in the community".

It was a business proposition and nothing more.

"I see myself as an open-minded person.

"I'm a person who has high moral integrity and a social conscience, and I am a person that plays by the rules.

"Generally speaking I like people and I care about people, and that will carry on into the brothel business.

"It will be a place where it meets the needs of both the clients working there and respects the privacy of the people who use it."

The chairman of the New Zealand GP Council, Peter Foley, said Dr Benson's change of business proved "medicine isn't the big earner people think it is".

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI)