THE family of a woman who plundered around £200,000 from a youth football league were struggling with their mortgage at the time she turned to crime, a jury heard.

Karen Prictor and husband Kevin made a number of requests to Northern Rock to convert their repayments to interest only to lower their monthly outgoings.

But after she started dipping into the funds of the North Wiltshire and District Youth and Minor Football League they routinely spent more than they earned.

And when police arrested her, as well as a garden pond stocked with koi carp, they also found the garage of their Toothill home had been converted into a home cinema.

The details of the Prictor family finances were put before the jury on the second day of the trial of 58-year-old Kevin, who denies a charge of possessing criminal property.

It is alleged that between November 2009 and June 2013 he was in possession of property knowing or suspecting it to be the proceeds of crimeinal conduct.

DC Clive Read produced a number of photographs taken by police when they went to the Prictor’s home to arrest Karen, 47, in February 2013.

On the drive He said there were two cars on the drive and inside there was a Bose sound system, a number of computers and a large flat screen TV.

He said the garden pond, which had a water purifier, was stocked with koi and the garage had been converted with a drop down screen and projector.

Earlier, he said Northern Rock had sent detectives copies of 116 letters relating to their mortgage on the house in Beverley, Toothill.

In 2009 and 2010, he said the Prictors wrote on a number of occasions asking to reduce their repayments because of the downturn in the economy.

They said Kevin, who worked as an electrician for Style Stable Co Ltd, was earning less and Karen had been off sick and they also had many debts.

To back that up, they also sent the building society details of a bank loan in Kevin’s name which he had been struggling to repay.

But over the following years Mr Read said Karen Prictor started topping up their account from the money belonging to the league, of which she was treasurer.

He told how they would frequently spend thousands more than they earned through legitimate means but stayed out of the red because of the illicit payments.

In September 2010 he said they spent about £2,000 more than they earned, with about £2,800 of league money being transferred to the joint account.

A year later, in October 2011, they earned just under £4,000, spent just over £6,000, and about £3,000 came from the league.

“It is a mirror image month after month,” he told the jury of nine men and three women at Swindon Crown Court.

The officer told Swindon Crown Court that while Mr Prictor had signed some of the letters to Northern Rock they had been written by his wife.

It is the prosecution’s case that he must have known what was going on but he insists his wife dealt with all the finances and he was unaware of the crimes.

The court has heard that Karen Prictor admitted fraud and false accounting, where she doctored paperwork to try and cover up what she had done.

Margaret Rivers, 55, admitted fraud while her husband Andrew, who goes by the name Philip, 58, both of Ramleaze Drive, and both the women have admitted possessing criminal property.

Kevin Prictor denies the charge and the case continues.