By David Lindsay

A Maltese-owned and run Dublin brothel, which was confiscated in late January by a special task force set up to crack down on prostitution in the Irish city, was auctioned off for £230,000 on Thursday.

Within a nondescript building with a seemingly innocuous brown door, lie three expensively furnished floors and a basement - each specifically designed for the operations of a brothel.

The house of ill repute, which had been in operation for some 10 years, was owned and operated by a Maltese woman identified as Teresa Behan who lives in Birzebbugia and who had purchased the building in 1990 for £50,000 but has now reportedly left Ireland.

As testimony to the fact that the Maltese entrepreneurial spirit can never suppressed, regardless of the country or sector it operates from, the Maltese Madame is said to have made a lucrative living off her operations.

Ms Behan is reported to have had substantial experience in the prostitution business, as she had run two separate brothels in Dublin for up to 20 years – business activities that had provided her with earnings of £3,000 to £4,000 per month.

However, no charges were brought against Ms Behan by the Irish authorities.

The establishment was known as The Academy, while the same individual owned another brothel, which was advertised widely in magazines as The Relaxation Centre.

The brothel was furnished with beds, saunas Jacuzzis, showers, waiting rooms and benches along the hallways – and other paraphernalia used for the running of brothels.

Operation Gladiator, a special unit set up to investigate prostitution in Dublin, had singled out the establishment as particularly notorious and, in fact, was the subject of the first such exercise carried out by the task force.

Information collected by investigators was consequently handed over to Dublin’s Criminal Assets Bureau who moved in to search, seize and change the locks at the brothel. The building, which was initially expected to fetch up to £500,000, was sold by the CAB through public auction on Thursday but failed to go for even half the amount anticipated.

The CAB had argued in court that Ms Behan, who had run two brothels in the Irish capital over the last 20 years, had purchased the building, in Dublin’s Lower Rathmines Road, from the profits of prostitution.