A businessman from St Albans who raked in more than £1 million a year through a brothel disguised as a five-star licensed massage parlour has been jailed for two years today.

Ross Lawson, 32, of Oakwood Road raked in £75,000 every Friday night offering X-rated services to a stream of wealthy clients at the upmarket bordello. Dozens of prostitutes earned up to £100,000 a year at the sex den, run as a legitimate health club in Camden, North London.

Lawson got booze and massage licences from Camden Council for the Steam and Sun Health Club and kept up to date with his taxes and national insurance contributions. But in fact, he operated an 18-hour-a-day brothel for seven years, offering as many as 27 prostitutes each night in private rooms with pole dancing and X-rated videos.

Lawson used the proceeds to pay off £8,000-a-month credit card bills, and to fund his and his family's lavish lifestyle. When detectives raided the four-storey building, in Chalton Street, Somers Town, in February last year, they found men and women having sex, 27 scantily-clad women and £3,000 in cash in a jar on the bar.

Lawson, the owner and manager of the brothel, was convicted by a jury at Blackfriars Crown Court of running a brothel and money laundering the profits.

Judge Peter Murphy jailed him for two years, but warned he would have faced a longer sentence if the prostitutes had not been working in such good conditions:

"The Sun and Steam has been described as being as legitimate as it could be as a criminal enterprise." He said. "It was in any view a remarkably successful one, and I think it's right to say, Mr Lawson, that in light of all the evidence that success of that business is almost exclusively due to you.

"I am in no position to try to calculate the profits, but they must have been very considerable, and supported an affluent lifestyle for yourself and members of your family. "This is a case of a long-standing, well organised, and profitable business which turned over a great deal of money."

The judge said many of the prostitutes interviewed by police had complemented Lawson's style of running the brothel, running an expensive bar and legitimate sauna and steam rooms, and charging a 30 per cent credit card fee, but not taking any of the women's earnings. Judge Murphy said: "You were not taking advantage of them in any way.

"It has been urged upon me that I could possibly suspend the sentence, but the scale of the enterprise however renders that impossible. "But I will say the sentence I pass will be a good deal less than it would have been having regard to the financial success of the operation because of the conditions I've referred to."

Mark Paltenghi, prosecuting, told the court the brothel had an 'absolutely staggering turnover', with Lawson admitting himself the last ten months of business yielded £1.1m.

The club's website boasted 'international ladies', VIP rooms and two penthouse suites, and billed itself as London's 'only five-star massage parlour'.

Internal emails from Lawson warned prostitutes to offer 'a complete service' to customers, even if they were fat and ugly.

"I suspect anyone looking at the website and the brochures, or reading the emails could have had absolutely no doubt what the nature of the business truly was behind the scenes." The judge said.

He added: "The scale of the operation was truly remarkable, and on the occasion of the raid that were 25 or so women working. "I have no doubt that was true on many evenings."

Lawson, who took over the failing business from his uncle in 2005, got valid licences from Camden Council and paid annual taxes, even registering several staff for income tax payments.

He was joined in the dock today by his sister, Jade, 27, a law graduate from the University of Hertfordshire, who worked as the brothel receptionist. The jury cleared her of managing the brothel after a four-week trial, but she was convicted of accepting £30,000 from her brother to pay off her student debts knowing it was the proceeds of crime.

The judge told her: "You are a very capable young woman when you put your energies to legitimate enterprises. This was an aberration which is unlikely to be repeated."

Lawson was convicted after trial of keeping a brothel and three counts of money laundering. He was jailed for two years for running the brothel, and sentenced to 18 months each for the other charges, to run concurrently.

Jade Lawson, of Linkway Parade, Fleet, Hampshire, was convicted of one count of money laundering and cleared of keeping a brothel. She was given a six month jail sentence suspended for a year, and put on a three month 9pm to 7am curfew.

A third defendant, club barman Waldemar Walczak, 29, of Coopers Lane, Somers Town, Camden, was convicted of earning money from a brothel and transferring £53,000 to his wife and brother-in-law Karolina Ginter, 33, and Rafal Ginter, 29.

Mr and Mrs Ginter, also of Coopers Lane, were cleared of acquiring criminal property after trial.