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A Hamilton man has shut down a controversial ‘sex doll brothel’ after upsetting the neighbours.

Steven Crawford hit the headlines when the Sunday Mail revealed he was offering romps with a lifelike latex model called Faith – for £60 an hour.

However, he said that he might now rent out the sex doll rather than let people pay for time with it in his home.

He said: “Unfortunately I have upset a few neighbours, but they’ll notice I don’t have any visitors and I never really intended to.

“I would still hire out the doll at an agreed meeting point. Whatever they are comfortable with.

“I have removed my ads and contact details. I will re-upload them when I can be sure it’s legitimate inquiries.”

(Image: Mark Anderson)

The 25 year-old entrepreneur spoke to our sister paper the Daily Record and told them that he launched Date a Doll Services Limited earlier in the month.

It let punters rent the doll out by the hour.

He told the Sunday Mail: “If someone thinks, ‘He’s sleazy’, they’re absolutely entitled to think that, but I really don’t have any qualms about it.”

Since the story, Steven says he has removed the online ad for the rubber doll as he believes he has upset his neighbours.

He has since said: “It wasn’t really a brothel. I just wanted to build trust and publicity to establish a customer base and hire out equipment. I would like to hire it as opposed to doing it from home, yes.

“I have taken down the ad used to garner publicity.”

When asked about what the procedures he will have in place for hiring out ‘Faith’ in the future, he added: “I would ask clients to use protection and pay a deposit. They don’t have to use protection, but I will charge if hygiene standards are not met.”

South Lanarkshire Council said that it will be investigating to ensure public health is protected.

Shirley Clelland, Head of Fleet and Environmental Services at the council, said: “The council is not the enforcing authority in relation to health and safety, as this is a business operated from domestic premises – HSE (Health and Safety Executive) would be the enforcing authority in this instance.

“Environmental Services recognises that there are potential public health issues associated with this type of business and will be undertaking further investigation to determine what arrangements are in place to protect public health.”

A HSE spokesperson said: “All businesses have a general duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to ensure that those affected by their business are not, so far as is reasonably practicable, exposed to risks to their health or safety.

"The steps required to ensure compliance with this general duty will be based on assessment of the risks created by the particular activity”.