RESIDENTS and traders in Wanstead High Street have spoken of their shock after learning that a young Thai woman was being forced to work as a sex slave next door to them.

Atchara Nualpeyai, of Perth Road, Gants Hill, was jailed for six-and-a-half years on Friday (July 25) for running a brothel in a flat above the Chicken Spot takeaway shop in Wanstead High Street.

A police operation was launched in December after they were contacted by a woman in her 20s, who had been trafficked from Thailand in 2005 and forced to work as a prostitute to pay off a £27,000 debt.

Richard Strong, who works at Spicer McColl estate agents just two door away from the sex den, said: “I'm out and about a lot but my colleagues commented that their were always people coming and going.

“We joked that it was a brothel but I never actually thought it was.

“It's a shock as I didn't even know anyone had been arrested, let alone jailed.”

Nualpeyai’s neighbour, Suetlana Levina, 34, said: “I heard that there were a couple of brothels in this area but I didn't realise one was right next door.”

Nualpeyai, who also ran a sex den beneath her Gants Hill flat, pleaded guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court to controlling prostitution, possessing Class A drugs and trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

Police inquiries revealed that Nualpenyai transferred approximately £8,000 cash to an account in Thailand and a financial investigation is currently ongoing.