Detectives from Thames Valley Police’s organised crime unit have raided three homes in Oxfordshire in an investigation targeting suspected brothels.

Police yesterday said warrants were used to search homes in Pheasant Walk and Mandlebrote Drive, in Littlemore, Oxford, and Ladder Hill, Wheatley, on Wednesday.

Two properties in Reading and Newbury in Berkshire and another in Middlesex. were also searched.

Jamie-Lee Rowland, 30, of Mandlebrote Drive, and a 37-year-old woman, of Ladder Hill, were arrested on suspicion of managing brothels and money laundering.

Both were released on police bail until December 16.

Det Supt David Poole, head of specialist operations, said: “Thames Valley Police is conducting investigations into the management of brothels and prostitution and money laundering and as a result, a series of co-ordinated raids were carried out at six addresses.

“We are still reviewing evidence from the searches carried out, and some of the interviews are still to be done.”

Det Supt Poole would not comment on whether the properties searched are suspected to be brothels.

The raids were part of an ongoing investigation into prostitution in Oxfordshire and across Thames Valley, Det Supt Poole added.

Rowland is also facing two charges of possession of a firearm and another of possessing a bladed article.

He appeared at Oxford Magistrates’ Court yesterday. In court, he was wearing a blue sweatshirt and jeans.

Rowland is accused of possessing a single-barrelled shotgun, a Taser-style stun gun and a green and black lock-knife with a four-inch blade.

Stuart Matthews, representing Rowland, applied for bail, which Ann Sawyer-Brandish opposed on behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service.

Refusing the bail application, District Judge Deborah Wright said: “I am sending these cases to Oxford Crown Court for November 14. You will be remanded in custody.”