He is one of a growing number of financially successful men entering into arrangements with younger Canberra women through international arrangement sites.

The Sunday Canberra Times recently reported that 200 cash-strapped ACT students have signed up to a website that matches millionaires with young women and where sex is traded for cash, gifts and holidays.

Frank has used the website to meet eight women and has had sexual relationships with five of them. ''The older I get, I find more and more women in their late 20s would be keen to be with me, they all say the same thing about wanting the company of an older man - but someone who is not too much older - to learn from and to take care of them both intellectually and physically.''

The 44-year-old is a busy chief executive officer. He dates more than one woman at a time and says he offers them a better life than they could afford themselves.

''My profile is pretty clear about money - I won't pay an allowance but I am happy to pay for dates, holidays, gifts and the odd expense or two if needed.''

And on two occasions he had bought very expensive gifts for women on their ''first date.''

Almost 400 Canberra men have registered on the SeekingArrangement ''sugar daddy'' website that matches millionaires with leggy blondes and brunettes. The company's founder Brandon Wade says the average ACT member is 46 years old, makes at least $268,503 a year and is worth more than $4.5 million. Each member spends about $4256 a month on the website and has to prove an earning capacity over $250,000 a year to qualify for certification. So each month rich Canberra men are spending more than $1.5 million to meet young women.

Frank said there was no stigma for men using the site and most of his friends know he uses it.

''Those I have told agree this is the way of the future,'' he says.

''I am a little picky about who I want to be with … I joined the site to meet women to share the fine things I have in life and of course to have a relationship while I am away from home.''

Petite and blonde, Sarah* is a 19-year-old local business student. For her the line between boyfriend and client blurred but there was no doubt who was in control.

''I did fall in love with a sugar daddy, but he is on this site because he does not want to be married,'' she says.

Sarah has used the website for almost two years. She has had two ''relationships''. They have paid her rent, given her gifts, taken her on business trips and also paid her HECS fees.

''One was 33 and acted very much like my boyfriend. We saw each other most weekends, and I really rather loved him. He took me to Paris with him for a business trip once.''

Sexual anthropologist Bella Ellwood-Clayton says wealthy men might use a site that matches them with younger, attractive women because they liked to be the dominant partner.

''Many of these men who play the part of sugar daddies, become addicted to the game,'' Dr Ellwood-Clayton said.

The website has more than 11,000 Australian male members. But more women join the website than men. In the ACT there are 3568 female members. (The average female-to-male ratio is eight to one).

Dr Ellwood-Clayton said historically the mix of status and beauty was very common.

''Looking at this phenomenon anthropologically, though - through the lens of history and cultural variance - the mixture of status and beauty has been very common … the powerful older man and his nubile young partner.''

Prostitution from residential suburbs by individual sex workers has been legal in Canberra since 1992, but many work under the radar with less than a dozen individual (sole operator) sex-workers registered in the ACT.

Sarah isn't on any list, nor are any of her fellow university students. Almost 90 students from the Australian National University have signed up to trade sex for cash, gifts and holidays, with 17 University of Canberra students and 28 Canberra Institute of Technology students also posting their details on SeekingArrangement.com. The Australian Catholic University has 64 registered ''sugar babies'' Australia-wide.

In June the ACT Legislative Assembly Justice and Community Safety committee report into prostitution recommended changes to the way the territory's sex laws should operate, including an increase in the number of sex workers who can work from a suburban residence from one to two.

* Frank and Sarah agreed to talk to Fairfax Media on the condition of anonymity and were given pseudonyms.