Brothel owner and former driving instructor Vishva Juneja should receive a prison term in the range of three to five years for prostitution-related crimes, a Crown attorney argued Thursday at the Edmonton man's sentencing hearing.

Juneja, 64, was convicted in April on charges that included two counts of keeping a common bawdy-house and three counts of living off the avails of prostitution. He owned Just for Men and Hustler's Men's Massage in Edmonton.

While the Crown argued for a prison term, defence lawyer Shawn Beaver said Juneja should be given a conditional sentence to be served at home or a custodial sentence in the range of nine to 24 months, if the judge prefers that Juneja goes to jail.

In similar cases, sentences greater than three years were given in situations involving violence, drugs, children and street prostitution, Beaver said, adding none of those factors were present in Juneja's case.

Court of Queen's Bench Justice Richard Marceau will deliver his decision on Friday.

When given the chance to speak to during Thursday's hearing, Juneja apologized to the court and to his family.

"I promise I will do only good — not be bad," he said.

Women just a 'meal ticket'

The Crown described Juneja as a "street pimp in a building" who manipulated, degraded and exploited women.

"He saw women as nothing more than a meal ticket," Crown attorney Melanie Hayes-Richards said, noting that Juneja would take more than 50 per cent of the money his employees earned for performing sex acts.

Juneja also committed a serious breach of trust by trying to recruit students at his licensed driving school to work at his massage parlours, Hayes-Richards said.

In his arguments, Beaver said did not pose a risk to reoffend because he has shut down his massage parlours, lost his licence to teach driving and discontinued his "offending behaviours."

Beaver also asked the judge to take into account the punishing effect of media coverage of the case, which has been devastating to Juneja's family.