A man accused of helping to manage a string of brothels across East Anglia denied any knowledge that prostitution was taking place at any of the properties he was involved with.

Norwich Crown Court has heard how brothels had been set up between 2006 and 2008, fronted by seemingly respectable businesses at the Cavendish Hotel, in Princes Road, Great Yarmouth, and a Chinese herbal medicine shop in Upper Orwell Street, Ipswich.

A third brothel operated out of a house in Chalk Hill Road, Norwich.

Shu Quin Wang, 54, of Princes Road, Yarmouth, has admitted conspiracy to manage brothels but her brother Jian Zhane Wang, 52, of the same address denies conspiracy to manage brothels and money laundering.

Giving evidence through an interpreter, on Wednesday Jian Wang told a jury he had no idea there was any prostitution going on.

He said he had come to Britain from China, in 2005, and claimed he had bought the house in Chalk Hill Road, in Norwich, as he wanted his daughter back in China to come to the University of East Anglia to study.

“I wanted my child to have a comfortable environment in which to study.”

However he said her application was turned down and so he had rented out the four bed-roomed property to a range of different people.

Because he did not speak any English he said he left all the arrangements to his sister Shu Quin Wang and did not know it had been used as a brothel.

He said that he was a doctor specialising in orthopedic work and had worked for a short time at his sister’s business in Ipswich but said there was no work for him and he had then moved to the Cavendish Hotel, in Yarmouth, which his sister had bought with his help.

He said he had lent his sister about �40,000.

Wang said that he was happy to lend the money to his sister: “I think it is a profitable business, also Yarmouth is a tourist attraction.”

Although he was staying in the room next to one which was being used for prostitution he said he had no idea what was happening.

“I did not know. There was a person there who received a massage but I did not know anything about prostitution.”

Earlier Hugh Vass prosecuting read a statement from an undercover officer called Jamie who had visited the Cavendsih Hotel where he had been offered the services of 21 year-old girl for �60 per half hour or �100 per hour for sex.

Mr Vass said the undercover cover officer was taken to room five where he was greeted by a scantily dressed woman although he turned down her offer for sex.

The trial continues.