A WOMAN from Llangollen charged with money laundering told a jury she had been “used”.

Elaine Bird broke down in the witness box at Mold Crown Court and said: “They have used me.”

She denied being part of a money laundering arrangement stemming from a scam under which victims paid out tens of thousands of pounds thinking they were investing in wine.

Bird, 55, of Mount Pleasant, is charged with money laundering between April 30, 2015 and May 30, 2016 and transferring the proceeds of fraud.

She pleads not guilty and says she was totally unaware of what was going on.

The prosecution say she 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.

The account of FMS Retail Ltd received about £70,000 from the two victims.

In evidence Bird accepted she had set up bank accounts at the request of a Swindon man named David Darrell - the husband of one of her cousins.

She received £1,000 a month for receiving mail and forwarding it on to him, she explained when questioned by her barrister Hunter Gray.

Bird agreed the company was registered in her name but she said she believed it was legitimate and she had no suspicions.

Bird said she believed the company and a second one being set up was involved in contract cleaning and supplying fridges for events.

She had established a “virtual office” in Liverpool but that was at Mr Darrell’s request.

It was the intention that should be the registered address rather than her own, she said.

She had no control over the bank account and had no access to it.

Asked about large payments into the account, she said she did not know of them.

Prosecutor Brian Treadwell said her case appeared to be that she was being well paid “for doing very little”.

She replied: “I was just grateful to have a chance of a little job of work from my house.”

Asked if she thought she was taking a chance, she replied: “No, I would not have done that. I had a mortgage, a grandson.

"I have never been in this sort of trouble before.”

It was only later she was told what had happened.

The first she learnt of it was in her police interview, she said.

Mr Treadwell asked her if she had no suspicions about what was going on?

She replied: “No, I did not at the time.”

Proceeding.