OFFICERS from a Police Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) have shut down a brothel in a flat just off a busy shopping street and minutes away from a secondary school.

Officers from the Cranbrook SNT told the landlord and tenants that they had evidence the flat, in Frinton Mews in Gants Hill, was being used as a brothel.

The landlord served the tenants with an eviction notice on Friday, July 9, before police visited the flat again on Monday, July 12 and found that it had been vacated.

Residents had complained to police about anti-social behaviour near the flat, and expressed their concern that the premises were being used to sell sex.

Sergeant Dwyer of Cranbrook SNT said: “The closure of this brothel has demonstrated that police take residents' concerns very seriously and aim to solve problems on the ward as soon as possible.

“We have received positive comments from local businesses expressing their gratitude since the closure”