Four women and a man have received jail sentences for posing as collectors for the Help For Heroes charity in the north of England.

The gang registered with the charity to obtain material for their fraud and then targeted railway stations, football matches, concerts, bars and pubs, including a pub in Newcastle where they were filmed on CCTV making collections. Natalie Hornby, 39 got 30 months, Jacqueline Newman, 57 got 16 months, Ellen Grant,45 got 15 months, Lydia Cummerson,41 got 12 months and Hornby’s husband Robert, 49 admitted a minor part and received a 4 month suspended sentence.

The offences of conspiring to commit fraud by misrepresentation were committed between November 2009 and February 2010.