THREE men who conned Children in Need and Comic Relief into handing over money for non-existant charities have been jailed for a £100,000 fraud.

Joseph Ndjomo, 44, of Stainton Road, Enfield, and Jean Bilong, 37, of Napier Road, Enfield, convinced the high-profile bodies that the money would go to good causes in Africa.

Along with Francois Hiondi-Nkam, 37, of Streamside Close, Hornsey, convinced Comic Relief to give them £7,370 and even managed to scam the Home Office and Awards For All.

They devised names such as The Africa Roots Club, The Cameroonian Youth Association and The Enfield Refugee Coalition for their bogus charities, and used aliases to submit the bids.

Because of an “inadequate” system of checks and monitoring, they were able to continue their scam for three years.

At Southwark Crown Court on Friday, the trio were found guilty of a conspiracy to defraud and three counts of obtaining money transfers by deception at Southwark Crown court.

Prosecutor Richard Jory described the operation as “a well organised, systematic attack upon the system which dispenses grants.”

He said: “It was assisted, I'm afraid, in no small part by the inadequate systems in the bodies which provided these grants.

“It seems that only sporadic checks were made on where this money was going.

“In many cases, there were large sums of money awarded, and the large sums of money were mainly used for the defendants' own enrichment.

“Analysis of transactions of the various accounts and of the defendants' personal bank accounts shows that substantial funds were being paid, and regular and significant cash withdrawals were being made.”

The trio were eventually rumbled in 2004 when officials from the Big Lottery Fund decided to investigate funding applications by the defendants.

Judge Anthony Leonard QC sentenced Ndjomo and Bilong each to three and a half years in jail.

Hiondi-Nkam was sentenced for three years and nine months, with a bench warrant also issued for his arrest as he absconded before the trial began.

A Comic Relief spokeswoman said: "Comic Relief has awarded over £550 million of grants in the past 20 years and cases of wilful misappropriation of funds are extremely rare. The charity maintains rigorous application and monitoring systems. It constantly reviews these and draws on expertise from external advisors from across the UK, to ensure its funds go where they are most needed and can be used to make the maximum impact."