The New South Wales Planning Minister, Frank Sartor, says corrupt conduct findings against a Parramatta Council employee who accepted sexual favours from prostitutes is a lesson on over-regulating the industry.

The council's former Compliance Service Team leader, Wade Fryar, received free sexual services from at least five prostitutes and up to $40,000 in payments from brothel owners.

The state's corruption watchdog, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), has found that Mr Fryar did not take action against the operators of the illegal brothels in return.

The ICAC says he also warned brothel owners that the council was about to inspect them in some cases.

It is recommending that Mr Fryar should be charged for corruptly receiving benefits and for giving false information to the commission.

It also wants the Department of Public Prosecutions to consider charging a number of sex workers named in the report.

The report also makes recommendations on ways to prevent such corruption in the future and has called for an inquiry into the regulation of brothels.

Mr Sartor says he has not seen the findings but he will not support the Government taking over planning control of brothels.

"It's a difficult issue because communities often don't want brothels but we need to be a bit careful with how far we go with prohibitions," he said.

"Prohibitions lead to a black market, they lead to underworld, they lead to corruption, so this is a lesson in being overly restrictive in some of these uses."

Bad apple

The ICAC has made 10 recommendations to the Parramatta Council to help improve its compliance system.

But the council says the corruption findings strengthen its internal processes.

The council's general manager, John Neish, says he is certain this type of situation will never happen again.

"I think our community should be reassured of that," he said.

"No-one likes it when there is one bad apple that gives a poor reputation to the organisation. There's definitely no culture of this within council."

Link to original article