A woman who worked as a fraud investigator for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been given a suspended 18-month prison sentence for her role in an £885,000 charity tax fraud.

Elizabeth Lewis was found guilty of laundering the proceeds of 13 bogus gift aid claims totalling £885,000 made by her husband, Mark Lewis, who was the chief executive of the Welsh Independent School of Climbing and Mountaineering Trust (WISCM).

Swansea Crown Court heard that Mark Lewis pretended that the WISCM charity, set up to help disadvantaged children, had received £3m, including donations from former England goalkeeper David Seaman and the TV presenter Nick Hancock. As a result, Mark Lewis claimed £885,000 in gift aid refunds, when in fact he had raised only a few hundred pounds via a bucket collection.

Mark Lewis was sentenced to four years' imprisonment, after having pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing. He spent £53,000 and £74,000 on houses and gave £43,000 to a church where he and his wife were members, according to reports at her subsequent trial. A further £150,000 went into their bank accounts.

At Elizabeth Lewis' hearing, the prosecuting lawyer stated that she had 'willingly helped him launder the proceeds of the fraud, purchasing two properties outright, which they then rented out for profit, and financing some 27 other companies that the couple registered with Companies House.'

The prosecution lawyer went on to say: 'Her claim not to know about fraudulent income was farcical: she had been a fraud investigator for many years and had extensive experience investigating exactly the sort of offence her husband was committing.'