£1m Seized From Edinburgh's Criminals

More than £1 million has been confiscated from two brothel keepers for a series of offences carried out over a decade.

Margaret Paterson and Robert Munro were among five people who were ordered to pay back almost £1.5 million in separate cases at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Paterson, 62, and Munro, 63, had been on trial for brothel-keeping, money laundering and living on the earnings of prostitution between 2001 and 2011.

They were sentenced to five years' imprisonment in July 2013 but faced confiscation hearings today. They laundered almost £595,000 of the proceeds of their crimes by using it to purchase luxury goods and services, and the remainder through the company bank account and the possession of illegally-obtained cash.

The money confiscated today will be made available to the Scottish Government's CashBack programme, which reinvests criminal proceeds into a range of sporting, cultural and educational activities for young people.