A Kingston woman has been jailed after police investigating a murder uncovered a credit card scam that left victims £145,000 out of pocket.

The fraud came to light when police raided a house in February last year in connection with the murder of Douglas Yogarasa and found a sports bag hidden in the ceiling of a bedroom.

The adidas bag stashed in the loft bedroom of the house in Enfield, north London, contained more than £30,000 in cash, 60 counterfeit credit and debit cards, blank cards and a chip and pin machine as well as the details of more than 600 bank accounts.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Lansdown said officers used the account details in the bag to follow the money trail to five people, all of whom were sentenced at Harrow Crown Court yesterday.

Kingston woman Tharani Satkunananthan, known as Tara, 27, of Revell Road, was sentenced to three years after pleading not guilty to conspiracy to defraud and four counts of obtaining money transfers by deception.

Satkunananthan had paid a number of unauthorised bank transfers from her employer into a bank account and had company cheques made out to an account in the name of "A Raj" set up by ringleader Vyson Sivanathan.

Sivanathan, 27, of Glynn Avenue, Barnet, was jailed for six years for two counts of conspiracy to defraud, proceeds of crime offences and possession of false instruments.

He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud, possession of criminal property, possession of false instruments and not guilty to the second conspiracy to defraud charge but was found guilty on July 12.

D Ch Insp Lansdown said four others - Logarajah Sellathurai, 23, of Luton, Jessica Sohan, 20, of Eldon Road, Hornsey, Thuthipaalasundaran Mathialakan, 22, of Tudor Road, Harrow, and Gajamugan Poobalasingham, 30, of Ovesdon Avenue, Harrow - had all been beneficiaries of the money in the A Raj account.

Sellathurai was given 18 months for three counts of money laundering, Sohan 12 months suspended for two years, 300 hours' community service and an 18- month supervision order for conspiracy to de-fraud, proceeds of crime offences and possession of false instruments.

Mathialakan was given eight months' jail suspended for two years after pleading guilty to money laundering.

The other two pleaded not guilty but were convicted in July.

Poobalasingham failed to appear for sentencing and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

D Ch Insp Lansdown said the investigation had found losses of more than £60,000 stripped from cardholders.

"This has been a long and complicated enquiry and the MPS has been successful in dismantling a criminal network engaged in large scale fraud," he said.