A brothel owner could be ordered to hand over about £300,000 when she faces a confiscation hearing next year.

Sharon Land, who ran The Executive in Armley, Leeds, with the help of her son and daughter, is alleged to have benefitted from criminal conduct to the tune of £1 million and could face a prison sentence if she does not meet any confiscation order made against by a judge.

A year ago the 50-year-old, of Thornfield Place, Eccleshill, was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after she pleaded guilty to keeping a brothel.

Land, who had run the premises for several years before a police raid in September 2006, was also ordered to do 150 hours’ unpaid work for the community.

Last December, Bradford Crown Court was told that Land had booked a three-month cruise costing £15,000, but was arrested before she could go on it.

Judge Peter Benson today agreed to adjourn Land’s one-day confiscation hearing to a date yet to be fixed after prosecutor Richard Woolfall indicated that her benefit figure was said to be just more than £1 million.

He said the amount available for potential confiscation was put at more than £300,000 by the prosecution.

Land was one of six people arrested as part of an inquiry into brothels in Bradford and Leeds and yesterday Judge Benson made confiscation orders against the other five defendants.

Land’s 25-year-old son Chezeri Wyrill, of Chapel Street, Eccleshill, was described as her right-hand man.

He was said to have benefitted to the tune of £14,750 from his admitted involvement in assisting in the management of a brothel, but Judge Benson was only asked to make a nominal confiscation order of £1 in his case. Wyrill is currently a serving prisoner.

Wyrill’s sister Shelley, 21, of Thornfield Place, Eccleshill, worked as a receptionist at the brothel. Her benefit from criminal conduct was said to be £8,200, but again the judge was only asked to make the nominal order of £1 against her.

Judge Benson told the court: “Sometimes the criminal justice system seems surreal to me, but there we are.”

A Bramley couple who admitted running three brothels, including one in Bradford, were yesterday ordered to hand over almost £100,000.

David Knott, 51, and his 47-year-old wife Lorraine face having to sell their home in Aston Place in order to meet the confiscation orders imposed by Judge Benson.

The couple were said to have benefitted from criminal conduct to the tune of more than £1 million and they both face prison terms if they fail to pay up.

A sixth defendant, Marcus Doyle, 33, of Renaissance Drive, Churwell, Morley, will have to pay a confiscation order of £300 or face ten days in jail.