A BUSINESSMAN is hiring out sex dolls for £50-a-pop in a 'try before you buy' service.

The business owner, called Graham, denies that he has created a 'sex doll brothel' but said he is giving curious customers the chance to try out the models.

2 Customers can pay £50 for half an hour with the doll Credit: BBC Radio 5 live

He says lovedoll.co.uk, which is based on an industrial estate in Gateshead, Northumberland, then gives customers the opportunities to buy the dolls.

The company was launched last month and Graham says he has already had "a few" customers try it out.

He told BBC Radio 5 live: "We're hoping this is a test drive so that they would then go on to purchase one of our products.

"The aim of the game isn't simply the use of the service."

2 The dolls are dressed in lingerie in a secret room on a Gateshead industrial estate Credit: BBC Radio 5 live

The dolls made available for a half-hour 'testing and inspection' retail at £1,800 with 'life-like skin and realistic sexual organs'.

Customers wanting to test drive one of the dolls must provide contact details and pay in advance.

They then visit the unit where a key code gains them entry to a small room containing bed and the doll dressed in lingerie.

Graham admitted he has tested the dolls himself. He said: "It would be crazy for me not to.

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"Once you realise you're performing an act with somebody or something that has no judgement of you whatsoever, that is quite a freedom and that's a developing freedom that a lot of our customers experience."

There are no known sex doll brothels in the UK, although they have opened in Spain and Germany in recent years.

A boom in sales has seen the global sex doll market estimated at around £10 billion a year.