A Tottenham trio who fraudulently claimed half a million pounds of charity funds and sold secrets of how to do it have been sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court.

Brothers Kitumbula (pictured) and Kyalemaninwa Mazambi from Tottenham were sentenced to four years and three and a half years respectively and Mapendo Kasiba, Kitumbula’s wife, was given a two-year suspended sentence.

Half a million pounds was accrued by the trio from charities and grant-giving bodies including Comic Relief, Children in Need and the Big Lottery Fund over a number of years.

The three, originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, were found guilty on 4 August. Detective Constable Roger Boydell-Smith, who led police investigations at Scotland Yard, said: "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."

Ringleader Kitumbula Mazambia successfully applied over a number of years for grants of up to £60,000 for various “vague” projects claiming to benefit people from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Suspiciously similar grant applications

But the scam was scuppered in 2004 when the Big Lottery Fund queried suspiciously similar applications. The Metropolitan Police, the Charity Commission and other funding bodies were then informed.

While little proof of charitable work being carried out was evident, copious volumes of evidence of the funds supplementing their personal lifestyles was found during the subsequent Scotland Yard investigation. Evidence of the trio selling secrets of how to defraud charities was also found.

Six further defendants were earlier convicted in separate trials sharing a combined sentence of 17 years in prison. One defendant, Bulunda Lungumbu, was found not guilty.
 
In a joint statement, the Big Lottery Fund, Comic Relief and Children in Need said: “These convictions reflect the shared commitment as funders of charities and of the Metropolitan Police’s Specialist Crime Command to vigorously pursue this kind of pernicious abuse of charitable funding.

“It is vital that the public, who make possible so much important charitable work, are confident that their money is going to intended bona fide good causes.”