A Chinese brothel kingpin who managed 10 brothels has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years behind bars.

Kun Yi He, known as Kenny, 39, of Hunters Road, Chessington, was found guilty on Monday of running brothels in Cambridge, Berkshire and Godalming. He, who worked with his Ai Ju Su, and Manjit Singh to run the brothels, now faces deportation to China at the end of his sentence.

The UK Border Agency (UKBA) arrested him on June 23 last year and he was later found guilty of managing brothels on Monday, March 19, after a two-week trial at Reading Crown Court.

The raids last June were one of the biggest of their kind undertaken in the UK according to police, involving about 150 officers from the UKBA and nine police forces. They raided 13 addresses including He’s home in Chessington, and addresses in Sunbury, Maidenhead, Slough, Cambridge and Wokingham and arrested a woman at an address in Surbiton.

Ai Ju Su, 35, of Abbey Barn Road, High Wycombe, and Manjit Singh, 35, of Knowl Hill, Maidenhead, pleaded guilty to the same charges and will be sentenced at a later date. He’s crime partner, Manjit Singh, was given a second chance by a judge two years ago when he was facing jail for trafficking women. Singh, 35, was arrested after helping former police informant Michael Dalton and his partner Nikki Chen and others run four brothels with trafficked women, including one in Glenbuck Road behind Surbiton station.

They were both imprisoned for three years and two-and-a-half years respectively in August 2010 but have since been released. But Singh’s 12-month prison sentence in July 2010 was suspended for 24 months, after he pleaded guilty to involvement in the brothels.

Dalton and Chen are facing a confiscation court hearing on March 29 where police will seek to claw back as much of their money as they can. Dalton, a former police informant, is believed to have made in excess of £50,000, and Chen made more than £120,000 in the nine months she was being watched by police, but was believed to have been running brothels for years. Both could have faced considerably longer jail terms but the judge could not be sure either had been aware the prostitutes were being held in “debt bondage” – coerced into paying up to £28,000 out of their earnings and facing threats to their families in Thailand.