Rumours in the news this week are swirling around Madison Ashton following her eviction from Paramount Apartments. The former mistress of Richard Pratt is now facing yet more accusations of running a brothel out of a residential building.
The issue appears to be that Ms Ashton has been running a licensed brothel successfully in Darlinghurst,, but residents of an apartment block across the road are claiming that she is also using units in the block to offer escort services “in-house”. Complaints by residents include encounters with scantily-clad women in different areas of the building, including the lifts, as well as an increased number of “undesirable” characters loitering in the area.
Brothels in residential apartment buildings are banned in the City of Sydney, and are defined as any location where more than two sex workers are working for the same business. The only time they can operate out of a residential building is if the escort or escorts are both residents in that building.
Newspaper reports confirm that Ms Ashton does own an apartment in the block, and the City of Sydney has confirmed that compliance officers were already conducting an investigation into a complaint in the area. They further clarified the situation by advising that premises offering sex services are only allowed in some areas, and in general should not be set up either within or immediately next to residential buildings or land.
Given that Ms Ashton was evicted for similar activities from her last residence it does beg the question as to why she thought no one would notice repeat behaviour.
Fortunately, no such restriction applies to online dating or meeting up with people through our services. While some sex workers do occasionally try to use dating sites to gather new customers, you can usually steer clear and make sure you’re talking to someone genuine. If you use the same criteria that you use to check if someone is trying to run a scam, you can make sure that you are talking to whoever you think you really are, and continue to date safely.
Take care