May 15, 1990 — Brothel keeper Lindi St Clair, celebrated by Britain's red-top tabloid newspapers as "Miss Whiplash," lost her 15-year battle against the taxman on this day. The Inland Revenue demanded back-taxes and brushed aside her argument that they would be living off immoral earnings.
The tax authority said the money was due because it considered prostitution to be a trade, prompting the remark by St Clair that the taxmen were "nothing more than Her Majesty's pimps."
Born as Marian June Akin in 1952, at the age of 14 she ran away to London from her country home and was soon working the streets as a prostitute. Carefully taking care of the money she earned, after some time she was able to purchase a large house in the capital, which she converted into a lavish brothel.
Her clients came from the worlds of politics, diplomacy and business. Such was her success as a madam and dominatrix that she went on to own a Rolls-Royce and a yacht.
St Clair, who appeared regularly on radio and television, was to claim that more than 250 Members of Parliament had been among her clients.
In January, 1993, a major police hunt was launched after her car was found abandoned on the south coast. But it was later discovered she had gone on a luxury cruise.
In May of that year, after failing to pay the taxes that the Inland Revenue had demanded in 1990, she was taken to the High Court and declared bankrupt.
After the case she told reporters: 'The bankruptcy petition was for £112,000 the Revenue claims I owe, but that is only up to 1983. There is a further 10 years' unpaid tax they are claiming, bringing the amount up to £250,000.
'But the Government can whistle up their dispatch boxes for it. I went on that lovely world cruise first-class and blew the lot.
'They are not getting tuppence out of me. Now all I've got left is zilch. I sold my brothel last year. I've got no assets.
"Now I've retired. I've gone past my sell-by date. I'm going to sign on as unemployed."
St Clair, who sometimes spelt her name St Claire, stood and failed eleven times to win a seat in Parliament as leader of the Corrective Party. In 2009 she reverted to her birth name and has since embraced Christianity.
Published: April 16, 2018
Updated: November 18, 2019
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