Pair plead guilty to prostitution charges

Two foreign nationals who were due to stand trial later this year have pleaded guilty to controlling prostitution in Northern Ireland.

By The Newsroom

Published 20th May 2016, 16:47 BST

Updated 20th May 2016, 17:50 BST

At Belfast Crown Court, defence barristers for Ionut Ilie, 34, of Bucharest, Romania, and Ancuta Scbwarz, 30, of Berlin, Germany, asked for them to be rearraigned on all the charges they had previously denied.

Both pleaded guilty to two counts of controlling prostitution for financial gain, trafficking a female victim out of the United Kingdom and conspiring to remove criminal property to Romania.

Schwarz pleaded guilty to a further charge of removing criminal property from Northern Ireland, namely £4,178.91 through Western Union money transfers to Romania.

Judge Gordon Kerr QC ordered a pre-sentence report to be prepared and said he would sentence them on June 17.

At a previous hearing it was revealed the pair had both been extradited from Sweden following a three-year police investigation into a vice racket in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland Berlin