Sex in the Suburbs: Visits to prostitutes are just normal part of everyday routine for some
An afternoon's drinking with the lads. A common pastime across the Black Country and Staffordshire, but for some men their day out would not be complete without a session with a prostitute.
And many of those who indulge may have wives waiting at home, blissfully unaware of what is going on.
So why do they do it?
We've spoken to one man who has been seeing prostitutes for 12 years and says for him it is nothing more than a 'business transaction'.
Andy, whose name we have changed because he doesn't want his partner of 10 years or indeed anyone else, to know his secret, says he was 24 when he first used a prostitute at the end of a drinking session.
He is one of around 10 per cent of men in the UK who have used prostitutes and talks quite openly and unashamedly about how he has paid for sex more than 100 times in venues ranging from back street houses to upmarket gentlemen's clubs. He views it as a business transaction. As far as the 36-year-old tradesman from Dudley is concerned, this is normal life.
"The first time I went to the brothel it wasn't great to be honest," he said. "But I went back anyway.
"It just became a normal thing after a while.
"I might finish work or be out on the drink with the lads and just decide to go."
He lives with his long-term partner and claims his liaisons with other women had benefitted his relationship at home. "I think we get on well," he said.
"If she ever found out I don't have a clue what she would do, but that's not going to happen." Andy said he has visited prostitutes in towns and cities across the West Midlands, as well as in countries throughout Europe.
"Places tend to open and close quite a lot," he said.
"In recent years I have used brothels in Walsall, one in Wolverhampton, a couple in Birmingham."
Last month the European Parliament voted through a report recommending the 'Nordic Model' of prostitution laws, which punishes the client rather than the sex worker.
"What would be the use of locking someone up for using a prostitute," he asks. "The woman gets paid and the man goes away happy. Don't they call it the oldest profession in the world?
"If I did get arrested, would it stop me from doing it? Probably not to be honest. And I think a lot of people would tell you the same thing."
