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SYDNEY - Local Australian politicians paid private detectives thousands of dollars to have sex with prostitutes so they could use the evidence to shut down illegal brothels, reports said Sunday.

Nick Ebbeck, mayor of suburban Ku-ring-gai Council, defended the practice, saying evidence was needed.

"We have to employ private investigators to actually go through with the act and come up with reports that will suffice in a court process," Ebbeck told the Sunday Telegraph.

"On numerous occasions over numerous days and times, they had to fulfil the act."

Nine Sydney councils have spent 25,000 dollars (19,730 US) over the past three years to fund the sexual forays, the paper said.

The detectives provide the councils with sworn statements describing their encounters, sometimes backed up by video evidence, which they can use in court, it said.

Agence France-Presse