A husband and wife have been sentenced to a total of 27 months in prison for laundering more than £90, 000.

Yanhong Lin, 29, and Qing Yu, 36, of Belmont Avenue, Tottenham, were found guilty of money laundering following a eight-day trial at Wood Green Crown Court.

They were sentenced to serve 12 and 15 months in jail respectively on Friday.

The couple's criminal activities were discovered after police in Northern Ireland raided the home of a house in Llewellyn Avenue, Antrim, on December 23, 2011.

A man at the address was found to be in possession of more than a kilo of cocaine and two kilos of cutting agents, a stun gun and around £20,000 in cash.

A mobile phone was also seized showing a text referring to a person called Qing Yu at Belmont Avenue, Tottenham.

A postage receipt was also found relating to a parcel that was sent to Stevens Cottages, Willesden, in 2011.

This was the former address of the married couple Mrs Yanhong Lin and Mr Qing Yu.

The couple had since moved to Tottenham and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) approached Haringey Police about the former residents of Stevens Cottages.

The Belmont Avenue address was searched under warrant by Haringey Crime Squad on January 10, 2012.

During the search, officers found £31,680 in cash, two empty parcels addressed to Llewellyn Ave, in Antrim, Ireland and diary entries made by Lin referring to amounts of money ‘sent from Ireland’ one of which read "Sent from Ireland £21,520".

Lin and Yu were arrested on suspicion of money laundering and later bailed pending further enquiries.

During the investigation, Detective Constable Andy O’Boy of Haringey Police identified £60,000 in the couple’s bank accounts. Qing and Yu claimed that the money was the result of cash gifts received for their wedding.

DC O’Boy contacted relatives of the couple in China to see if the could confirm that the money was the result of wedding gifts.

The family denied knowledge of the ‘cash gifts’.

A  diary belonging to one of the suspects written in Chinese also contained references to cash being received from Northern Ireland.

CCTV footage was obtained of the Llewellyn Avenue, Antrim residents posting parcels from the post office in Northern Ireland to the Belmont Avenue address and footage of Lin and Yu was obtained of them transferring what was found to be large sums of money to China.

On 20th June 2013, Lin and Yu were charged with money laundering and their trial date was set for February 24, 2014.

After an eight-day trial at Wood Green Crown Court, both defendants were found guilty of money laundering. Both will be required to serve at least half of their sentences before they are eligible for appeal or release.

DC O'Boy said: "This was a long and complex case that clearly demonstrates the audit trails left by all transactions.

“By making use of resources such as CCTV, bank records, transfer documents and translators I was able to see a clear picture of what had been going on.

“Yu and Lin will have time to reflect on this as they serve their sentences."