Toys-R-Us Manager Paid Hooker $31,000 a Week

This is one of the most entertaining stories I’ve heard in a long time! Not so much because some guy royally messed up both his personal and professional lives, but because of what the judge asked the prostitute at the hearing. Continue on to learn more.

It seems that sex really does sell! The going rate for one particular prostitute in Britain was approximately $31,000 per week. Paul Hopes, ex-purchasing manager of a British Toys-R-Us chain, was sentenced and jailed for stealing $6 million from the company in order to fund a high-end affair. Because it belonged to the company, the money (and luxury cars) is being reclaimed. And here’s where the fun begins!

We’ve all seen this story before – some stupid guy gets in over his head with money and women, then winds up losing it all. What makes this story better than the others, however, is how the judge reacts to how much the prostitute charged poor ole Mr. Hopes. And I quote (almost) directly from an article on MSNBC,

Judge: "It is £20,000 ($31,000) a week. How do you manage to evaluate your services — sex — at £20,000 a week? "

"How do you justify that?"

Hooker: "It wasn't me that was putting the worth on that. It was Mr. Hopes paying what he thought it was worth."

What makes this so amusing to me is that when it comes to something like sex or drugs, you don’t waste your time haggling over price – you pay whatever it takes to get what you want. It’s not like he was going to head over to the nearest corner to see if there was a better deal. Not to mention the fact that the hooker blames the CUSTOMER for voluntarily shelling out that amount of cash is monumental! It’s not just a random number that suddenly pops in one’s head when thinking about an appropriate sum to pay a person for sex – especially if that person is an addict, which let’s be honest, is pretty much the case here. I’m sure Mr. Hopes would have paid anything from $50 to $50K if that’s what the resident hooker wanted. Also, it’s not like it’s going to help out YOUR case, lady, unless you gave the money to the starving population in Africa. Just own up to your own involvement and get back to work find a job that’s less gross.

Shakespeare himself could not have written better poetry than that exchange! But wait, there’s more! And by that I mean more prostitutes – a hearing with another one is scheduled for the coming weeks.