Sex trade boom: Ireland’s biggest escort site targets Europe

The company that operates Ireland’s biggest sex-worker website has moved its headquarters to Spain and is expanding its business across Europe, the Sunday Independent has learned.

Boom

The owners of Escorts Ireland, previously operated by E Designers Ltd based in London to avoid prosecution from profiting from prostitution here, are now operating a number of similar websites across Europe.

Escorts Ireland chief executive Audrey Campbell, who is originally from Co Wicklow, confirmed the company has moved to Spain because of its “more accepting” attitude to “adult” businesses. Spain is also understood to be more tax efficient than the UK.

Escorts Ireland, which now trades as Lazarus Trading SL, would not divulge which markets it is expanding into, but said it now employs 30 full-time multi-lingual staff at its new headquarters. They also declined to divulge the exact location of its new HQ.

Ms Campbell set up the company with her partner Peter McCormick, an ex-RUC reserve constable who has a conviction for brothel-keeping in Dublin in the 1990s. McCormick’s son Mark was imprisoned for 16 months for brothel-keeping in 2010.

Speaking about the expanded new operation, Ms Campbell told the Sunday Independent: “The company operates a number of non-English language websites outside of the adult entertainment market. Spain offers a number of advantages, including an optimal legal and taxation framework, and access to a highly skilled and multi-lingual workforce that will enable the company to reach its full potential, while maintaining the standards and social responsibility values that our clients are accustomed to.

“Spain is a country which is very accepting of companies with interests in the adult entertainment industry and offers an excellent standard of living. Indeed the current workforce now includes a number of staff who previously worked for E Designers Ltd in the UK.”

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