A prostitute caught soliciting at a notorious hotspot on the borders of Heston and Southall has been given a conditional discharge.

Viorica Sandu, of Lansdowne Avenue, Slough, appeared at Feltham Magistrates' Court on June 12, when she admitted persistently soliciting in Hayes Road, Southall, for the purposes of prostitution.

The 24-year-old was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £85 in costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Another woman, Margareta Mereska, 27, of the same address, was charged with the same offence after being arrested on suspicion in Hayes Road on May 17. She failed to appear in court on June 12 and a warrant was issued for her arrest.

The area is a notorious hotspot for prostitution. Police have previously given rape alarms to women working at a medical call centre in the neighbourhood who said they were scared for their safety after being mistaken for sex workers.

Earlier this month, nine women suspected of working as prostitutes were evicted from a rented home in Heston.

In a huge crackdown on prostitution and kerb crawling in Southall last year, police arrested 41 men on suspicion of sex offences between July and September last year.