Four people made thousands of pounds from running brothels at a Norwich house, a Great Yarmouth hotel and above a Chinese medicine and herbal shop in Ipswich, a court has heard.

Four people made thousands of pounds from running brothels at a Norwich house, a Great Yarmouth hotel and above a Chinese medicine and herbal shop in Ipswich, a court has heard.

Shu Quin Wang, 53, who was said to have been found with a Winnie The Pooh diary detailing girls and prices when she was arrested, appeared at Norwich Crown Court yesterday along with her brother Jian Zhane Wang, 51, and employees Pin Yi Wang, 50, who is not related to the siblings, and Richard Clements, 56.

Clements, of Turnstone Close, Mildenhall, Shu Quin Wang and Jian Zhane Wang, both of Princes Road, Yarmouth, deny charges of conspir-ing to manage brothels between July 6, 2006, and February 8, 2008.

Shu Quin Wang and Clements also deny running a brothel at the Cavendish Hotel in Princes Road, Yarmouth, and Shu Quin Wang denies managing a brothel in Chalk Hill Road, Norwich.

The two women also deny a charge of managing a brothel in Upper Orwell Street, Ipswich, and all three Wangs deny charges of money laundering.

The court heard how undercover police officers rang the mobile phone numbers contained in advertise-ments for Chinese and Oriental massage and were told they could perform sex acts with young Asian women for �60 per half hour or �100 an hour.

In the prosecution's opening speech, Hugh Vass said police obtained the addresses of the brothels and undercover officers visited the premises, making their excuses once it was obvious prostitutes were working at the sites.

He said Shu Quin Wang, had told the Inland Revenue she earned just �6,761 in 2006-07 when she had �81,818.19 go into her bank accounts.

He said she had been identified as paying for some of the adverts in person, and after two raids on the brothels, she was found in possession of phones which related to one of the numbers advertised.

The Ipswich herbal and medicine shop, where Pin Yi Wang, of Newport, Gwent, worked, was raided in December 2007. The prosecution claims she was fully aware one of the rooms above was being used as a brothel.

The Chalk Hill Road brothel was raided in February 2008 and was in a house bought by Jian Zhane Wang in April 2007. Despite telling the tax office he earned less than �15,000, he could afford the �1,400 a month mortgage and on papers to buy the house stated he earned �58,000 a year. He claimed to have a tenant, but told police he could not recall their name.

When police raided the brothel they found Shu Quin Wang in the kitchen, along with a man she claimed to have never seen before.

Mr Vass said: “To say she told a pack of lies would be a complete understatement. The man she claimed not to know was her husband.”

The prosecution allege Shu Quin Wang, who bought The Cavendish for �300,000 in spring 2006, invented a “fictitious” female friend called Dr Tang, who she claimed owned the diary, phones, ran the Cavendish Hotel and had asked her to place the adverts.

Clements had been a guest at the Cavendish Hotel and was subsequently taken on as a barman and assistant manager.

He is alleged to have offered the services of girls in room five to hotel guests, as well as collected the girls from the station, as they were brought in week-by-week on a rotation basis.

The trial is expected to continue for four to five weeks.