A former brothel-owner has been ordered to pay back almost £250,000 which he gained through the proceeds of crime.

New Zealander Desmond McAuliffe was jailed for a year after he admitted running the sex premises at Thorncliffe House, Thornbury, Bradford, but yesterday he was back at the city's crown court where Judge Linda Sutcliffe made a confiscation order against him.

Police seized just under £80,000 from a safe during their inquiry into the 49-year-old's activities and although McAuliffe has agreed to hand over that money he now faces having to sell the former brothel and his home in Fifth Avenue, off Killinghall Road, Bradford, to meet the outstanding balance of more than £160,000.

When McAuliffe was sentenced last year Judge Roger Scott was told that six or seven "scantily-clad'' East European women were found during a raid at his brothel.

The property contained seven bedrooms and was equipped with a Jacuzzi and a large whirlpool as well as vending machines for condoms and Viagra.

The court heard that in 1988 McAuliffe, who is married with two daughters, had also been convicted of running a brothel in the Stanningley area of Leeds.

If McAuliffe fails to pay off the outstanding balance of £160,259 in the next six months he could be jailed for up to two years.

McAuliffe has now been released from his jail sentence, but his barrister Sarah Barlow told Judge Sutcliffe that he felt a deep sense of grievance that other brothel operations had not resulted to similar prosecutions.

At the time of her client's sentence last year she stressed that McAuliffe had not coerced or corrupted anyone to work at his premises and it was a properly-run establishment.

''This defendant was providing a safe and regulated place of work as opposed to the alternative that one often sees in Bradford,'' she said at the time.

''This was a properly-run establishment, very much with the welfare of the girls working there at the forefront of his mind.''

Judge Scott accepted that the brothel appeared to have been properly-run, but he pointed out to McAuliffe that his previous convictions should have been a ''warning shot across the bows''.

After the hearing McAuliffe said: "We do not have that money. Now I will have to sell both of my properties - Thorncliffe House in Leeds Road and the family home. My wife and daughters are stressed about it.

"If one of the properties does not sell, I will have to go back to court and I can then get put in prison for the outstanding balance, come out and have to pay it again.

"Now we will be homeless. I am on the dole at the moment. I have been for ten jobs so far and as soon as they hear I have a police record and ran a brothel, they say 'goodbye'."

McAuliffe has lived in Bradford since 1983.