A benefits-claiming Catford wife, husband and brother-in-law have been jailed after being found guilty of mortgage fraud and money laundering.

Police discovered Aluna Ebanks had obtained a £285,000 mortgage for her Ardgowan Road home by claiming that she was earning £78,000 a year and supplying false documents.

In reality, she was claiming jobseekers allowance and working part time in a shop on the Walworth Road.

Her husband Bradley Copeland, had supported the mortgage application, despite the fact he and brother Reece, had a few months earlier obtained their own fraudulent joint mortgage of £209,000 at an address at Camberwell by claiming that they were both employed. In fact, both were on benefits.

Enquiries also found Reece Copeland was claiming housing and council tax benefit at another address, despite having a mortgage and undeclared capital. 

He also had unexplained deposits in his bank accounts totalling around £94,000 and was investing in stocks, shares and foreign exchange trading, in which he deposited amounts of up to £50,000.

Police uncovered the fraud after raiding an address in Purley back in May 2012, finding a suitcase containing £11,000 cash and another £1,000 in cash in Reece Copeland's bedside drawer.

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At Woolwich Crown Court on February 17, Ebanks was given a one-year suspended sentence after being found guilty of mortgage fraud.

Bradley Copeland, 24, was given a three-year sentence for mortgage fraud after trial.

And his brother Reece, 29, received an 18-month sentence for mortgage fraud and another 18 months for money-laundering.

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Detective Constable Mark Powell from Southwark CID said: "This was a very long and complex investigation which took time to piece together. 

"They were all in receipt of benefits yet were depositing large amounts of money and had obtained mortgages, providing no valid explanation or legitimate documents to support how they came about those assets. This was a meticulously planned fraud by the Copelands in which Ebanks was complicit. 

"We will now be looking to confiscate all the money and property that was obtained fraudulently under the Proceeds of Crime Act."