A horse-riding instructor from Sarratt who led a double life as a brothel madam's assistant, has walked free from court with a suspended prison sentence.

Jenine Jones supplemented her equestrian earnings from her wealthy Home Counties clients by helping to run the seedy brothel above a motorcycle shop by night.

The smartly-dressed 41-year-old was caught red-handed when police raided the brothel because she had climbed out onto the roof, fearing the place was being burgled.

When detectives found Jones she was shivering on the roof she told them: "Thank God it's you, I thought we were being robbed."

Jones was sentenced to four months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, after she was convicted of assisting in running the brothel.

Jones was 60 miles from her £400,000 home in Hertfordshire when officers burst through the front door of the brothel in Newbury, Berks.

She was arrested but denied helping run the illicit enterprise - merely insisting she was a weekly cleaner at the small two-bedroomed flat above the bike shop.

However, officers discovered that as well as cleaning she answered the phone to set up encounters and took cash payments from clients on behalf of the working girls.

The well-groomed blonde also kept brothel owner Meinir Kirlew - also known as Teresa - up to date with text message information on the amount of punters attending the premises, the numbers of girls working and where she had hidden takings under loose carpet for collection every Friday.

When officers raided the flat they discovered a man and a woman in one of the bedrooms in a state of undress, the court heard.

The woman said she was a prostitute and renting the room.

The women, from Latvia and the Czech Republic, paid £20 pounds per client to Kirlew for use of the premises.

Pornographic material, oils, towels and baby wipes were found in one bedroom of the property in Newton Road, Newbury, during the raid on November 9. The second room had similar paraphernalia.

Jones was found on the flat roof outside the second bedroom.

When officers searched Jones she was found to have a cheque book in her name. She also had keys to the address.

A letter addressed to Teresa Kirlew was found and a total of £680 pounds cash was seized from the establishment above the Pro-Bike shop.

Classified adverts for the brothel billed as "relaxing and unhurried massages" were placed in the Newbury Weekly News and Newbury Advertiser newspapers.

These £50 pounds weekly adverts had appeared in the local papers since 2007.

Jones, of Deadmans Ash Lane, denied a single charge of assisting in the managing of a brothel involved in the practices of prostitution on or before November 9, last year.

However, the jury disbelieved her version of events and she was found guilty late last year.

In Jones' defence it was said that she only worked at the brothel one day a week and her role was organisational rather than managerial.

Judge Angela Morris sentenced Jones to four month in prison, suspended for 12 months.

She was ordered to complete 160 hours of unpaid work, within the next 12 months and pay a victim surcharge of £80 pounds.

Judge Morris told Jones her role was "one of administration," but that she was trusted with dealing with the day to day running of the place on the days that she worked.

She said: "I am prepared to accept in your case your involvement, as stated in the pre-sentence report, was financially motivated because you were struggling to make ends meet.

"I am bound to say there are plenty of other ways to make a living that don't involve committing criminal offences," she said.