A QUALIFIED aromatherapist has denied being part of a suspected money laundering arrangement in which victims paid out tens of thousands of pounds thinking they were investing in wine.

Elaine Bird, 55, of Mount Pleasant in Llangollen, appeared at Mold Crown Court facing two alternative charges.

That she entered into a money laundering arrangement between April 30, 2015 and May 30, 2016.

Or that she transferred the proceeds of fraud, knowing them to represent the outcome of criminal conduct.

She pleads not guilty to both charges.

Brian Treadwell, prosecuting, said Bird was the registered director of a facilities management company called FMS Retail Ltd, which in 2016 received payments from two victims of a wine investment scam.

He said in 2013 Claire Bradley from Manchester was contacted by a man claiming to be from a firm called Bordeaux Fine Wine offering investment opportunities which she entered into.

But some time later, when the firm apparently went into liquidation, both she and an 88-year-old man in Northern Ireland named John Clements were contacted by a James Compton from a company called RST Contracts.

Mr Compton, the court heard, claimed his firm had recovered the wine stock and was able to sell it on on their behalf if they were willing to invest.

Over a period of months both victims were tricked into parting with more and more money, transferring it into different bank accounts on the understanding that they were expanding their portfolio, paying taxes and administration fees in relation to their investments, or increasing their profits.

One of those accounts was FMS Retail Ltd, which Mr Treadwell said had received about £70,000 from the two victims.

In her statement Ms Bradley, a deputy nursery manager, described the situation as "a nightmare" and said to all of the accounts involved in the scam she had sent in excess of £100,000.

Mr Treadwell said the fact the monies transferred to the FMS Retail Ltd account were criminal in nature was not in dispute.

He told the jury that instead they would have to be satisfied that Elaine Bird was involved in transferring those monies and whether she knew or suspected they were related to criminal activity.

DC Helen Phillips, of North Wales Police Financial Investigation Unit, talked the court though police interviews with Bird, in which she told officers that a Swindon man named David Darrell - husband of one of her cousins - was the one who got her to set up a bank account at Barclays in Wrexham.

In the police interview Bird said Darrell would send her payment of £1,000 a month for receiving mail from HMRC in relation to the business and forwarding it to him.

She also told police she had no knowledge of any fraudulent activity on the account and had never heard of either of the victims, stating it was "news" to her and that it had upset her.

When asked about FMS Retail Ltd Bird admitted to officers that despite being the director she did not know a lot about what the company did and had not questioned Darrell about it. She believed it be a legitimate enterprise.

Hunter Gray, defending, told the court that by her own admission to police Bird had no control over the FMS bank account or its payments and transfers.

He said a number of payments and transfers to and from the account were connected to accounts of other businesses owned by Darrell, adding there was nothing to indicate that the money transferred was obtained fraudulently.

Mr Gray added a series of withdrawals from the FMS Retail account in the Swindon area could not be proven to have been done by Bird.

The trial continues.