A driving instructor has been found guilty Thursday of recruiting students as sex trade workers for two of his inner city massage parlours.
Vishva Juneja, a 63-year-old instructor with the Alberta Defensive Driving School, was found guilty of two counts of procuring, three counts of living off the avails of prostitution and two counts of operating a common bawdy house.
The charges were laid after police wrapped up a seven-month undercover operation that uncovered a client list with 160 names and used condoms found in a number of rooms in his Just For Men and Hustler’s massage parlours in Edmonton.
“It would be absurd beyond a reasonable doubt for a doctor to pay $500 for holistic massage,” said Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Richard Marceau about the evidence presented during the lengthy trial.
Juneja remained sullen as Marceau read his verdict. He is still on bail until sentencing.
“I am going to be appealing,” said the driving instructor to reporters as he rushed to the LRT.
Juneja ran ads in the Edmonton Sun, according to previous testimony from a sex trade worker, offering “2 for 1” deals, where clients could have sex with two women at once.
The worker, who cannot be named, claimed that after Juneja took his $60 “room fee,” she would pocket about $100 per client.
“The accused would receive over $40,000 per month out of the prostitution,” said Marceau during his verdict.
The worker would describe how she repeatedly made excuses to avoid a “training session” behind closed doors of a “jacuzzi room” with Juneja.
“He kept insisting, and I didn’t want to go — he was creepy,” she said.
Another charge was dropped and Juneja’s defence is seeking a stay on another charge arguing an Edmonton undercover officer committed entrapment against his client. The judge will hear the defence lawyer’s arguments May 28.
