Jailed sex trafficker fined £45,000 for his part in prostitution network

Published on 11/07/2012 12:00

A SEX trafficker who controlled a prostitution network across the UK, including in Edinburgh, has been ordered to pay £45,000, the Crown Office said.

Stephen Craig, 35, from Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, was jailed for three years and four months in October last year for arranging travel, accommodation and advertising for 14 women.

His co-accused, Sarah Beukan, from Leith, who is known as Ashleigh Beukan, was jailed for a year-and-a-half for her part in the human trafficking scheme. She was 22 at the time.

In the first case of its kind in Scotland, the pair admitted moving 14 people to various addresses in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff and Newcastle to work as 
prostitutes.

They were the first people to be convicted in Scotland under new legislation covering trafficking within the UK. At Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday, a confiscation order for £45,000 was made against Craig. Lindsey Miller, head of the serious and organised crime division of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, said: “Stephen Craig took part in a criminal prostitution operation that spanned the United Kingdom. His conviction, along with that of his co-accused Beukan in September last year, was a landmark case for human trafficking in Scotland. By virtue of this conviction, Craig was deemed to have committed a lifestyle offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act.”