Many men might be a bit envious of how this 60-year-old divorced man earning a bit of pocket money from time to time.

‘John’ is a brothel buster and he gets paid to have sex with prostitutes in Australia. He is one of a small group of licensed private investigators who are called upon by councils to root out evidence of illegal sex work by posing as regular customers.

Even though he doesn’t broadcast what he does for work, he says one of his two adult sons knows. As he told news.com.au, “it’s not the sort of thing you admit if you roll into a pub and somebody asks you what you do for a job.”

The number of unlicensed brothels operating in New South Wales has exploded since the decriminalisation of the sex industry in the 1990s. And since most of them appear as therapeutic massage businesses, it is very difficult to get proof of sex work.

In addition, authorities have very limited power to access premises without a court order. Therefore, many are paying private investigators to go undercover and get back to them with their evidence.

John says his reports include many details such as dates, times, people, places.

“It’s a document that will be used in court, so it has to be pretty detailed and very accurate. It’s not something you can waddle off in a couple of minutes,” he says.

As he said to news.com.au, he considers himself incredibly lucky. “It’s not your typical nine-to-five, Monday-to-Friday job. There are no time constraints, and there’s never been a stage where I’ve felt threatened or worried about my safety.”