Living On The Avails

Last week’s British Columbia Court of Appeal decision in R. v. Nicolaou, 2008 BCCA 300 deals with a narrow but important point – does someone who takes money for value from a prostitute live “on the avails” of prostitution.

The answer is no, because if that were true a prostitute, who engages, it must be recalled, in a legal occupation would be unable to acquire anything.

The Court writes:

[61] I do not agree with the judge’s conclusion in para. 90 that the appellant was guilty of living on the avails of prostitution because he was “running a business [selling drugs] funded in part by the proceeds of the complainant’s prostitution”. If this were the law, any supplier of goods to a prostitute would be living on the avails of prostitution.