Family found guilty of conning charities out of £500,000

Three family members were sentenced yesterday for defrauding charities of more than £500,000 by applying for funding for spurious projects.

Among the groups which awarded them funds in good faith were the Big Lottery Fund, BBC Children in Need and Comic Relief.

Former asylum seeker Kitumbula "Joseph" Mazambi, 44, his wife Mapendo Kasiba, 40, and his brother Kyalemaninwa "Jack" Mazambi, 42, applied for up to 60,000 a time for projects that police said were so vague and nebulous it would be extremely difficult to check whether they had in fact been carried out.

Investigators found little or no evidence of bona-fide charitable work being done, but ample evidence of the suspects using the funds to finance their lifestyles or sending the money abroad.

During a seven-week trial a jury heard how Kitumbula Mazambi, a biology graduate of the University of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, masterminded the fraud.

Kitumbula Mazambi, of north London, was jailed for four years, Kyalemaninwa Mazambi, of Coventry, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years imprisonment and Mapendo Kasiba, of Tottenham, was given a two-year prison sentence suspended for 18 months.

Welcoming the sentencing, investigating officer Detective Constable Roger Boydell-Smith 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."