Police smash king pimp's £20m empire ... Investigation discovers chain of brothels in squalid hotels and houses ... Rogue landlord trafficked vulnerable women into the UK
A ROGUE landlord who fled Scotland after ripping off students has become a global vice king with brothels generating a £20million fortune.
David Archer, 53, preyed on impoverished foreign women who he trafficked into the UK and forced to work in the sex industry.
He kept one terrified victim locked in his £1.3million home where he used CCTV to monitor inside his four dingy brothels across London.
And he sexually assaulted other women while taking explicit photos of them for online adverts.
Police warned that the "controlling and manipulative" Glasgow pimp thought he was "untouchable" with links to organised crime gangs in Romania, Brazil and Ireland.
A six-month probe uncovered Archer's £16million property empire, including the Travel Inn in Forest Gate which he bought for £1.5million.
On the same street, he also owned a three-bedroom house which he illegally converted into 24 bedrooms - each used to sell sex.
Another brothel, the Excel hotel in Plaistow, was bought for £545,000.
Detectives and charities who help trafficked women were stunned at the scale of Archer's operation, which raked in £1.6million annually.
During a raid of a locked private room in one brothel, sniffer dogs found £142,000 hidden in a shower cubicle.
Despite thinking he would never be caught, Archer was finally brought to justice.He was jailed for 13 years after admitting conspiracy to control prostitution for gain, two counts of human trafficking, possession of a fake ID document and concealing criminal property last month.
He was also found guilty of three counts of sexual assault following a four-week trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court but cleared of seven rapes and another assault.
Prosecutors are now fighting to strip him of his dirty fortune.
Anne Read is director of anti-trafficking and modern slavery at the Salvation Army, who have helped 7000 victims in the past six years.
She said: "It sounds as if this man is at that severe end of entrapment and abuse.
"For victims to be locked in is rare. More often they'll be held by threats against their family back home, not knowing the language or being told the police won't help them.
"This guy is at the top end and there will be local agents working with him. There'll be lots of people making lots of money.
"He sounds as if he's at the very extreme end in terms of scale and the abuse he's subjected people to."
The Sunday Mail today lays bare the scale of Archer's empire and reveals he changed his name from David Grant.
As Grant, he gained notoriety as a Porsche-driving landlord, quitting Glasgow with a £500,000 trail of debt.
In 1995, our sister paper the Daily Record told how he stole deposits from students while renting out death-trap properties with no fire escapes.
Police also investigated sex tapes made by Archer. One female student said: "He was trying to chat us up but we just thought he was smarmy."
After leaving Scotland, he was divorced by his wife Lucia. He moved to Ireland where he falsely claimed to be an architect.
In 2007, he pleaded guilty to allowing a dangerous building in Dublin to be used as a hostel for 170 people without planning permission or a fire certificate.
It was in 2012 - while building his massive vice empire in London - that he changed his name from Grant to Archer.
Using a series of companies to mask his prostitution racket and launder its income, he forged links with Romanian gangsters who shipped vulnerable women to the UK.
Our probe has found he even used the identity of his daughter on Companies House documents for one of his front firms.
Claire Grant was a schoolgirl in Glasgow when she was named as the company secretary of Countryside Hotel Ltd, whose registered office was Archer's Travel Inn vice den.
Mum Lucia said that Claire had no idea her name had been hijacked by her estranged father.
Lucia, who divorced Archer in 1998, said: "She would have been 16 at the time. This was without her knowledge. She has no contact with him."
Archer's downfall featured in BBC show The Met: Policing London, in which Sergeant Vicky Kneale branded him "very controlling, very manipulative" with brothels in London and "potentially overseas".
Despite presiding over an international organised crime business, Archer only had two previous convictions for assault.
Kneale said: "He has been pretty much under the radar. I think he sees himself as untouchable by police."
One moment showed Kneale briefing more than 100 officers before they raided his properties.
She told them: "This guy thinks he's untouchable. Tonight's going to be a little bit different."
When she discovered the £142,000 of cash, she said: "Holy s**t. We've just found a whole load of money in Archer's room. I had no idea it was going to be on this scale."
Archer was then filmed as he was led from a cell to be charged. Police seized his assets including the four London properties, three in Dublin and two Mercedes cars.
One source said: "He has about £16million of identifiable assets. But it's likely he'll have millions of pounds stashed in offshore accounts or property in countries without proceeds of crime laws. To suggest he could be worth £20million is probably a conservative estimate."
Salvation Army director Read added: "The victims should be entitled to compensation from his proceeds of crime."
Detective Sergeant John Kirby, of the Met's Sexual Offences Exploitation and Child Abuse Command, said: "It's possible there are further victims who have not yet come forward. We would urge them to speak to police."
Sleaze a regular in Brazil's sex bar
Sleazy David Archer was a regular in Rio de Janeiro's tourist sex bars where he posed as a businessman.
He is thought to have lived in Brazil for several years and may still own a flat a block from Copacabana beach.
His favourite haunt was Balcony Bar, a notorious venue where US and European tourists targeted young women for sex.
The venue was shut down by authorities the day before the 2014 World Cup kicked off in a bid to shed the city's vice hot-spot reputation.
A source said: "One of Archer's companies, which was a front for his brothel business in London, gives his address as an apartment in Rio. It's a very nice street.
"The apartment is beside Copacabana Beach and he was previously living at another flat nearby. He was a well-known face in the Balcony Bar.
"Brazilian women are often victims of trafficking into the UK. It's possible that he was tapping into that market."
While living in Brazil around 2011, Archer set up a property company.
UK investigators will want to establish whether he has any cash or assets in Brazil and whether they can be recovered using proceeds of crime laws.
His properties in Dublin have been targeted for seizure as Ireland was one of the first countries to pass a proceeds of crime law.It's likely he'll have millions stashed in offshore accounts
First published in the Sunday Mail on June 4, 2017:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/rogue-landlord-who-fled-scotland-10553371
David Archer, 53, preyed on impoverished foreign women who he trafficked into the UK and forced to work in the sex industry.
He kept one terrified victim locked in his £1.3million home where he used CCTV to monitor inside his four dingy brothels across London.
And he sexually assaulted other women while taking explicit photos of them for online adverts.
Police warned that the "controlling and manipulative" Glasgow pimp thought he was "untouchable" with links to organised crime gangs in Romania, Brazil and Ireland.
A six-month probe uncovered Archer's £16million property empire, including the Travel Inn in Forest Gate which he bought for £1.5million.
On the same street, he also owned a three-bedroom house which he illegally converted into 24 bedrooms - each used to sell sex.
Another brothel, the Excel hotel in Plaistow, was bought for £545,000.
Detectives and charities who help trafficked women were stunned at the scale of Archer's operation, which raked in £1.6million annually.
During a raid of a locked private room in one brothel, sniffer dogs found £142,000 hidden in a shower cubicle.
Despite thinking he would never be caught, Archer was finally brought to justice.He was jailed for 13 years after admitting conspiracy to control prostitution for gain, two counts of human trafficking, possession of a fake ID document and concealing criminal property last month.
He was also found guilty of three counts of sexual assault following a four-week trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court but cleared of seven rapes and another assault.
Prosecutors are now fighting to strip him of his dirty fortune.
Anne Read is director of anti-trafficking and modern slavery at the Salvation Army, who have helped 7000 victims in the past six years.
She said: "It sounds as if this man is at that severe end of entrapment and abuse.
"For victims to be locked in is rare. More often they'll be held by threats against their family back home, not knowing the language or being told the police won't help them.
"This guy is at the top end and there will be local agents working with him. There'll be lots of people making lots of money.
"He sounds as if he's at the very extreme end in terms of scale and the abuse he's subjected people to."
The Sunday Mail today lays bare the scale of Archer's empire and reveals he changed his name from David Grant.
As Grant, he gained notoriety as a Porsche-driving landlord, quitting Glasgow with a £500,000 trail of debt.
In 1995, our sister paper the Daily Record told how he stole deposits from students while renting out death-trap properties with no fire escapes.
Police also investigated sex tapes made by Archer. One female student said: "He was trying to chat us up but we just thought he was smarmy."
After leaving Scotland, he was divorced by his wife Lucia. He moved to Ireland where he falsely claimed to be an architect.
In 2007, he pleaded guilty to allowing a dangerous building in Dublin to be used as a hostel for 170 people without planning permission or a fire certificate.
It was in 2012 - while building his massive vice empire in London - that he changed his name from Grant to Archer.
Using a series of companies to mask his prostitution racket and launder its income, he forged links with Romanian gangsters who shipped vulnerable women to the UK.
Our probe has found he even used the identity of his daughter on Companies House documents for one of his front firms.
Claire Grant was a schoolgirl in Glasgow when she was named as the company secretary of Countryside Hotel Ltd, whose registered office was Archer's Travel Inn vice den.
Mum Lucia said that Claire had no idea her name had been hijacked by her estranged father.
Lucia, who divorced Archer in 1998, said: "She would have been 16 at the time. This was without her knowledge. She has no contact with him."
Archer's downfall featured in BBC show The Met: Policing London, in which Sergeant Vicky Kneale branded him "very controlling, very manipulative" with brothels in London and "potentially overseas".
Despite presiding over an international organised crime business, Archer only had two previous convictions for assault.
Kneale said: "He has been pretty much under the radar. I think he sees himself as untouchable by police."
One moment showed Kneale briefing more than 100 officers before they raided his properties.
She told them: "This guy thinks he's untouchable. Tonight's going to be a little bit different."
When she discovered the £142,000 of cash, she said: "Holy s**t. We've just found a whole load of money in Archer's room. I had no idea it was going to be on this scale."
Archer was then filmed as he was led from a cell to be charged. Police seized his assets including the four London properties, three in Dublin and two Mercedes cars.
One source said: "He has about £16million of identifiable assets. But it's likely he'll have millions of pounds stashed in offshore accounts or property in countries without proceeds of crime laws. To suggest he could be worth £20million is probably a conservative estimate."
Salvation Army director Read added: "The victims should be entitled to compensation from his proceeds of crime."
Detective Sergeant John Kirby, of the Met's Sexual Offences Exploitation and Child Abuse Command, said: "It's possible there are further victims who have not yet come forward. We would urge them to speak to police."
Sleaze a regular in Brazil's sex bar
Sleazy David Archer was a regular in Rio de Janeiro's tourist sex bars where he posed as a businessman.
He is thought to have lived in Brazil for several years and may still own a flat a block from Copacabana beach.
His favourite haunt was Balcony Bar, a notorious venue where US and European tourists targeted young women for sex.
The venue was shut down by authorities the day before the 2014 World Cup kicked off in a bid to shed the city's vice hot-spot reputation.
A source said: "One of Archer's companies, which was a front for his brothel business in London, gives his address as an apartment in Rio. It's a very nice street.
"The apartment is beside Copacabana Beach and he was previously living at another flat nearby. He was a well-known face in the Balcony Bar.
"Brazilian women are often victims of trafficking into the UK. It's possible that he was tapping into that market."
While living in Brazil around 2011, Archer set up a property company.
UK investigators will want to establish whether he has any cash or assets in Brazil and whether they can be recovered using proceeds of crime laws.
His properties in Dublin have been targeted for seizure as Ireland was one of the first countries to pass a proceeds of crime law.It's likely he'll have millions stashed in offshore accounts
First published in the Sunday Mail on June 4, 2017:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/rogue-landlord-who-fled-scotland-10553371
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