TWO Romanian prostitutes were each given six month suspended sentences at Limerick District Court, and 48 hours to leave the city and fly home.
Denisea Ioana Cosac, aged 22, and 19-year-old Maria Gheorghe, were charged with operating a brothel at Market Place on High Street after gardai obtained a search warrant and conducted a period of surveillance of the area and the apartments in question.
A third woman, Hungarian in nationality, accused of a similar involvement and originally charged with the two Romanian women, had her case struck out after irregularities were found in the paperwork associated with her charges.
Garda Vincent Brick told the court that on February 16 last, a warrant was obtained to conduct a search in the premises.
On February 17, gardai searched two apartments at that address and found a large amount of sexual material associated with prostitution, including “costumes and sex aids”, together with eight mobile phones and a small amount of cash.
Garda Brick added that the accused women were advertising their “operation” on the internet through a “much larger organisation,” and that during the course of his investigation, noticed a “large amount of male callers”.
Neither have previous convictions.
Ms Gheorghe, a Romanian national, lived in Spain and paid to a “higher authority” to advertise on the website, one not in this jurisdiction.
Garda Brick confirmed, with solicitor for the accused, Darrach McCarthy, that the women were co-operative at all times and were found with only a “small amount of cash” between the two apartments.
Ms Cosac, a student of public administration, arrived in Ireland last January, and whatever proceeds she made from the operation was sent home to support and assist her family.
Mr McCarthy added that her parents earned the combined equivalent of just €350 per month, and that this “venture was a very recent development,” and that neither of the two women were living a “lavish lifestyle”.
He added that both women were looking to return home at the earliest opportunity.
Garda Brick said in evidence that he believed this to be a “private enterprise,” and that he was aware that the women had apartments in both Mayo and Dublin for similar operations. However, no charges were before the court relating to either of these properties.
Judge Tom O’Donnell noted the facts in the case and giving credit for the early plea and co-operation in the matters, convicted and sentenced the two women to six months in prison, suspended on the basis they were to be on good behaviour for a period of 12 months.
However, he ordered that they leave Limerick city within 48 hours, that the phones and “equipment” be forfeited to the state and, following an application by Mr McCarthy on their behalf, the rent money that the gardai found, be returned to the women for the sole purpose of purchasing airline tickets.
The case was adjourned.
