A LEADING London architect provided the financial backing that enabled his Thai wife to set up and run two brothels in York, a court heard.

Brian Reynolds, 53, who has worked on British embassies in Berlin and Moscow, benefited from the money passed to him by Khemthong Reynolds and her sister Nichanana Parton, who is in the country illegally.

All three were together in the dock at York Crown Court as prosecution barrister Peter Hampton outlined how Khemthong Reynolds rented a riverside flat in Emperor’s Wharf and turned it into a brothel until its owner found a woman hiding in a wardrobe and heard a man turned away while she was in the flat, and terminated the lease.

The Thai woman then rented a second flat in a residential block in Kyme Street, South Bank, until other residents, alarmed at the number of men going in and out alerted the police.

“These properties could not have been rented without his financial backing,” said Mr Hampton of Brian Reynolds.

“The activity was conducted over seven months.”

The architect’s barrister Mark Partridge said: “He was naive.

“He knew that this sort of industry was commonplace in his wife’s country of origin.

He knew there was too much money coming in and he simply didn’t want to know what was happening.”

Reynolds is an associate director at an architects firm based near Oxford Street, London.

Sentencing all three for offences connected to the brothels, Recorder Simon Phillips QC said: “The owner (of the Emperor’s Wharf flat) was upset at what she discovered.

Other residents were inconvenienced and concerned and, in cases, alarmed by what appeared to be going on at the premises (in Kyme Street).”

He passed a 14-month jail term on Khemthong Reynolds,40, of Gainsborough Road, Richmond, Surrey, suspended for 18 months on condition she did 200 hours’ unpaid work and observed a three-month nightly eighthour curfew. She admitted two charges of running a brothel.

Brian Reynolds, of the same address, was given a 12-month community order with 200 hours’ unpaid work and has to pay back the £8,505 he got from the brothels, plus £800 prosecution costs.

He admitted possessing criminal cash.

Parton, 37, of Birmingham, was given a 12-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months on condition she did nine months’ supervision and observed a three-month eighthour nightly curfew.

The court heard she benefited by £4,000 from her crimes, but had no money to be confiscated.

She admitted being involved in managing one brothel and perverting the course of justice by giving her sister’s name when arrested at the Kyme Street brothel.

For Khemthong Reynolds, Nicholas Barker said she had not forced any woman to work in the brothels and regretted her actions.

She regularly sent money to her mother in Thailand and worked in a coffee shop.

For Parton, Michael Greenhalgh said her marriage had broken up shortly after she arrived in the UK seven years ago and, unable to support herself, had welcomed the chance to work in the Kyme Street brothel.

She intended to apply for permission to stay in the UK.