Move to bar 'sex card' numbers

Mobile phone companies are being asked to bar numbers on prostitutes' cards displayed in telephone boxes.

This follows a four-week operation in which tens of thousands of cards were seized by police and council officials in central London, and 23 people were arrested for "carding" offences.

For the first time, officials also visited the premises advertised by the numbers. As well as seizing cards, they arrested 30 prostitutes at the brothels for immigration offences.

Now Westminster council and Scotland Yard are lobbying mobile phone firms to disconnect the numbers shown on the cards.

Westminster spokeswoman Victoria Fletcher said: "Mobile numbers are very valuable to these ladies. They want to keep the same number for their regular clients." BT has been barring calls from numbers advertised on the cards since 1996.

But police have found that the cards now show mostly non-BT numbers.

Superintendent Chris Bradford, of the Yard's clubs and vice unit, said: "These cards are pornographic, degrade these areas for the local communities and attract other illegal activities.

"No wants to see them in London. Police will not tolerate this illegal activity."