A TRIO who stole half a million pounds from charities like BBC Children in Need and Comic Relief have been sentenced.

Between 2001 and 2005, Tottenham couple Kitumbula Mazambi and Mapendo Kasiba made a series of fraudulent applications for charity money but used it to fund their lavish lifestyles.

With the help of Mazambi's brother Kyalemaninwa, 42, who lives in Coventry, they created numerous organisations to apply for grants, pretending to help displaced people from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

An investigation sparked by suspiciously similar applications to the Big Lottery Fund revealed although some charity work was done, there was reams of evidence showing how funds had been spent on the lifestyles of the trio and had been sent abroad.

They were also found to have been selling the secrets of their fraud scam to others, showing how charity funds could be accessed with little or no oversight of how the money is used.

Detective Constable Roger Boydell-Smith accused the fraudsters of “cynically betraying” people who donated to charity.

He said: "It is important when money is obtained by way of grants for charitable purposes that the public has confidence that the money is not used dishonestly.

"These individuals cynically betrayed their positions of trust by systematically stealing charitable funds raised in good faith by members of the public.

"Money that should have helped those in need was used instead for their own activities.”

Kitumbula Mazambi, 44, of Tewkesbury Close, Tottenham, was jailed on Friday at Isleworth Crown Court for four years, and his brother received a three-and-a-half year term.

Mapendo Kasiba, also of Tewkesbury Close, Tottenham, was given a suspended jail term of two years by the judge.