An illegal immigrant who raped two prostitutes he lured to a dark and squalid Bradford city centre basement was jailed for 15 years.

Ali Rezai, an Afghan national smuggled into the UK from Greece in 2008, was smiling when police arrested him clutching his first victim’s coat and handbag, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Slightly-built Rezai, with cropped hair and wearing a T-shirt, stood with arms folded as an interpreter translated the judge’s sentencing remarks yesterday.

Judge James Goss QC said that although Rezai claimed to be aged 20, he was sentencing him as a man of at least 21.

The judge said Rezai raped his first victim on September 25 last year after taking her to a dark and dirty basement room below a disused warehouse off Akram Road. He dragged her to the ground and forced her to have sex, leaving her distressed and frightened.

She ran off and immediately alerted the police.

Questioned by detectives, Rezai, of Duchy Drive, Heaton, Bradford, denied having sex with the woman.

He was on bail when he struck again six weeks later, on November 6, luring a second prostitute into the same filthy room and raping her.

The court heard he was demanding and violent. The woman wept in court as Judge Goss said: “It was a deeply traumatic event for her.”

The judge said: “Although both victims were mature women prepared to have sex for reward on their terms, you abused their trust and vulnerability by raping them in a dark and private place to which you had taken them for the purpose of so-doing.”

The court heard that one woman was on medication and receiving counselling after her ordeal.

Rezai, who was convicted of double rape after a five-day trial last month, is set to be deported after serving his sentence.

His barrister, James Bourne-Arton, said his client was from a very poor background and may be younger than 20. He did not speak English, was emotionally backward and had no social circle during his time in Bradford.

The judge made a Sexual Offences Prevention Order barring Rezai from contacting his two victims. He is also prohibited from being in the company of a known prostitute or loitering in red light areas.

He must sign on the sex offenders’ register for an indefinite period.