A CHINESE woman who was alleged to have run a string of brothels in Newport was discovered by a TV licencing officer on a routine call.

Angela Choo, 39, was said to have led the "high life" with her gains, staying at expensive hotels, bought designer watches and handbags and sent up to £50,000 to relations in Shanghai, said prosecutor Leighton Hughes.

Choo, of Caerau Road, Newport has pleaded not guilty to acquiring and concealing criminal property and to four charges of keeping a brothel at Cardiff Crown Court.

David Edmunds, 60, also of Caerau Road, has admitted money laundering and assisting in the operation of brothels, the jury heard.

Mr Hughes said Choo was an illegal immigrant who came to Britain in 2003 and made a substantial living both working as a prostitute and managing prostitutes across South Wales.

In 2004 she met Edmunds and they developed a personal relationship, meeting in hotels and sometimes paying her for her services.

She had set her sights high, said Mr Hughes, and wanted to run her own "massage parlours."

For four years, he claimed, she and Edmunds took out leases on properties in South Wales and advertised in local papers, including the South Wales Argus, that oriental massage was available.

Typically, they would operate for six months before the landlords became suspicious.

In Newport, they operated in Birch Hill, Malpas, Stow Hill, King Street and Cardiff Road.

The business was uncovered when a TV licensing officer went to investigate why she didn't have a licence and she rubbed herself against him and offered him sex.

When the police went to the properties posing as customers, the defendant and other girls met them dressed only in their underwear.

She would charge about £100 for an hour.

She was arrested four days later and said: "no comment" in answer to every question.

Proceeding.