SECRET DEAL THAT KEPT SEX SAUNAS OPEN FOR BUSINESS

How police operation stalled because of loophole

- NORMAN SILVESTER

IN 2013, the newly appointed Chief Constable of Police Scotland Sir Stephen House launched a crackdown on sauna and massage parlour operators across the country.

House had long believed that they were fronts for money laundering and criminality.

In particular he wanted to target Edinburgh's sex for sale industry, believing a blind eye had been turned by his predecessors.

He targeted Edinburgh saunas within weeks of the country's single force being formed in April 2013.

Operation Windermere closed more than a dozen premises and a number of people were charged with brothel keeping and living off immoral earnings.

City saunas caught in the crackdown included Scorpio Leisure in Albion Street, the Ambassador Sauna in Lothian Road, Carol's Sauna in Easter Road, Paradise Sauna in Roseburn Terace and premises in Blair Street and Dundas Street.

However, despite its best intentions House's crackdown foundered in the courts.

Criminal charges against 11 people collapsed after it emerged that – unbeknownst to him– the sale of sex had effectively been legal in Edinburgh since 1986.