Escort Agency

Go to any corporate do in the region and chances are you'll see bald accountants with Russian stunners on their arm. The magic of numbers? We think not. EN looks at the real bottom line of the escort industry and it is unusually firm.

Its seemingly unavoidable association with the sex industry and its portrayal in bad 80s films as the choice of female company for lonely businessmen at dinners, not to mention the lengths operators have to go to in order to stay within the law, conspire to make the escort industry one of the least examined and most misconstrued business models around. But it’s also one of the most lucrative – estimated to be worth tens of millions of pounds to the economy.

The business is strictly cash-only (much to the frustration of the taxman). Overheads are low – most agencies just need a phone and to set up and maintain a decent website – and it deals in a commodity that’s pretty easy to sell.

Escort agencies sell time. The time of female courtesans to their male clients at rates ranging from £120 to £250 an hour.

Every agency makes it clear that the fee being paid for companionship only and that "anything else is a private matter between two adults."

That caveat crucially allows agencies to avoid the various soliciting laws in the UK but, given that the overwhelming majority of escort agency websites show their escorts in racey underwear, stockings and stilettos, it’s no wonder their clients expect more than to share a pot of tea and a discussion about the state of the global markets.

George McCoy, author of McCoy’s British Massage Parlour Guide and a Daily Sport columnist, is currently researching his next guide to UK escort agencies. He admits he is breaking the law by advertising the sex industry but says the authorities are reluctant to take his, or any similar cases, to court given the slim chance of a prosecution.

He says, “The government can’t make up its mind. It wants money out of the business on the one hand but then there is this feminist looney fringe led by Harman on the other, which wants to close the whole industry down.

“The reason that prosecutions of escort agencies are so rare – although they do happen occasionally – is because the agency will invariably claim that they merely provide the service whereby the lady meets up with a gentleman and it’s very difficult for police to prove otherwise.”

Yet many working within the industry maintain that they provide a perfectly valid service, merely one step on from a dating site. Short-term companionship for particular events. The problem is that no one outside the industry really believes this and the perception of escorts is not helped by the number of “freelancers” who set up as escorts without any intention of actually escorting.

Susan Jones, owner of Angels4You, is one of very few in the escort industry willing to discuss her business but, she says, only an outspoken approach will improve the reputation of legitimate agencies like hers which are tarred by a completely different sector-that of pure prostitution.

She explains, “Some agencies run offices where the girls wait to be taken out by taxi drivers and inside the offi ces they have shower blocks so the girls can come back and shower and change before they see the next client. Some of them have to go from one client to the next. It’s one of the seediest things I have ever heard of but it does go on and nobody will talk about it.

“A more traditional agency tries to get each of their girls out two or three times a night and a lot of agencies have more than three or four girls available at any one time. That’s the norm in this industry, however, I know that I am completely niche in offering businesswomen who escort once or twice a month. It’s a niche industry for clients who know the difference.”

After leaving a job at KPMG, Jones discovered “swinging” (don’t ask –ed) in her early 40s, which, she says, led to her working as an escort. Now she is the owner of Angels4You, an agency of female escorts in Manchester, Leeds, Sheffi eld and Liverpool.

When her business was at its busiest (the recession and the drop in website rankings have meant business has fallen) Jones would take between 40 and 50 enquiries a month from women looking to be “promoted” with Angels4You. Of those enquiries, only one or two would join the team.

The cost of producing photos of the escorts for use on the agency site then needs to be met. Jones tells EN that she asks each member of her “team” to pay for their photoshoot themselves to confi rm their commitment to the agency. “I prefer the girls to pay because if they get cold feet after the photos but before they go out then I lose money.”

Jones says her first booking as an escort was a very big shock: “Unfortunately agency owners are in no position to offer any advice to their girls about what could potentially happen as there has to be a clear distinction in that we do not sell anything other than time. So it often feels like a Catch 22 situation.

“Very few girls come into this industry with adequate knowledge of what it is all about. There are two levels of people involved, those who are already in the industry and those, who I tend to look for, who haven’t been in this industry before and they want some time out every now and again. They’re not in it for the money, and those are the kind of girls that have usually got the intelligence to know what they are looking for and why.”

Escort reviewer McCoy says it’s a different story: “You will fi nd that most of the girls realise what’s involved and realise that’s the way to make a decent living. That’s why they are prepared to offer the services that they do. Most of the ladies expect sex to be involved.”

Agencies, like in any other industry, make their profi ts through commission which can vary from 25 per cent up to 55 per cent of the woman’s fee. A higher rate generally applies to those escort “agencies” which are essentially just a phone number behind which is often a man transporting a group of girls between clients at different locations. In those cases, of a typical hour’s fee of £90, the agency would take about 70 per cent.

An agency operating two in-call apartments, with around 25 women working there, is typical of the illegitimate establishments in the North West. An agency such as that, EN understands, could take up to £9,000 a month in commission alone.

The highest profile agencies have ex-models on their books and advertise their willingness to fly the girls to any location in the world. Then the rates become weekly, up to £20,000 a week, and very lucrative for the agency owner. Yet most of these agencies – some turning over up to £3 million a year – are based around the City.

The “introduction fee” must be paid to the escort at the very beginning of the meeting. Jones explains, “This is always for time and companionship despite so many believing it is a service that is paid for. As the contact comes from the agency to the girl then a percentage of the introduction fee will arrive soon after the booking from the girl to me. No contract exists between the client and the agency owner, I am simply an introducer.”

While Jones’s agency represents the classier side of the industry, with an emphasis on consensual enjoyment for the escort and the client, she admits the idea of an escort accompanying a client in a purely social setting, say a corporate event or dinner, is very rare.

She says, “The perception of a companion to many people is someone who goes to a social function with their client and that is rarely the case. Many agencies do have girls in groups attend social functions, such as stag parties or footballers’ houses but, again, these are always behind closed doors as personal time may well be the agenda for later.

“People think that, because I was an escort, I must know what happens behind closed doors but how could any of us know that? I couldn’t put my hand on my heart and say for defi nite that I know what happens after any door shuts. I don’t.”

McCoy admits he isn’t au fait with the high-end use of escort agencies but puts his opinions much more bluntly: “Occasionally they do go to dinners but most of them realise that most of the time they are involved in providing a sexual service. They like to pretend they are intelligent, whether they are or not is another matter.”

And the idea of an escort using her foreign language skills over dinner to close a deal? “I certainly wouldn’t pay much credence to that.” Of intelligent girls, he says, “it just isn’t that common.”

But that’s not to say white collar workers aren’t a big market for some agencies. Jones says: “In the past I have had a director ringing me saying he was bringing a guy over and he wanted to arrange for a girl to see him. He wanted to set up a meeting with another girl at the same time to make sure they could swap between the two of them. Needless to say I told him ‘no thank you’.”