Brothel pimp who posed as plumber to con taxman out of £10k weeps as he is jailed

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A tax dodging pimp who conned HMRC into paying him nearly £10,000 while he was running a string of Romanian prostitutes in a Scottish city has been jailed for 14 months.Eduard Stanciu posed as a plumber to file a false claim to the taxman and was given a rebate of £9,840.56 while he was living off the immoral earnings of sex workers imported from his homeland.Stanciu, who had initially faced human trafficking charges, wept uncontrollably and waved to his "domestic and business partner" Cristina Gaica as he was led off to prison.Prostitute Gaica, who admitted failing to appear for court after more serious charges against her were dropped, was admonished at an earlier hearing by Sheriff Paul Brown.Jailing Stanciu, Sheriff Brown said: "He had assistance but he still committed the offence.

These are serious matters and I see no alternative to a custodial sentence."He allowed the mother-of-two to escape punishment after being told she had spent a month in custody in Romania before being returned to Scotland to face justice.The prostitution-ring in Dundee was uncovered after police received a tip-off which led to raids on three properties in Blackness Road and Arklay Street in August 2019.Fiscal depute Stewart Duncan told the court that Stanciu and Gaica were in a relationship and neither of them had any visible means of income while they were in Scotland.He said: "Police received a call from a male stating that he had been at a brothel on two occasions.

Police attended flats A and B at 180 Blackness Road."There were six Romanian females within flat A. They all confirmed they were not in any danger and were free to go about their business as they wished."They all admitted being involved in providing sexual services, but denied