A CWMBRAN woman accused of laundering money raised by selling counterfeit cigarettes deposited more than £50,000 in cash into her two bank accounts over a four-year period, a court heard.

Sara Skinner, 44, of Oakleigh Court, has denied eight counts of converting criminal property, said to be counterfeit cigarettes and tobacco, to fund her "lavish lifestyle".

Simon Leighton, 42, of Maple Road South, Griffithstown, is also on trial at Newport Crown Court alongside Skinner charged with one count of becoming concerned in money laundering, said to be the proceeds of selling fake cigarettes and tobacco from his ice cream van. He denies the charge.

Several admissions, agreed facts between the prosecution and defence, were made at yesterday's trial including details of how much money was spent by Skinner on holidays, cars and non-essential items including clothing and home furnishings.

Skinner and her husband Mark, who the court was told committed suicide between June 11 and June 13 last year, spent £52,560.31 on 21 holidays in four years as well as nearly £60,000 on cars, money the couple had contributed on top of part exchanging vehicles.

Cars bought by the couple over the period included a Ford Focus, BMW convertible, a Ford Mondeo, Range Rover Sport, Fiat 500, Land Rover Discovery, the value of which totalled nearly £120,000.

The jury were shown copies of Skinner's bank statements and summaries of payments made to stores such as electrical retailer Currys, Cwmbran firm Tiles Ahead and travel agents TUI UK, Thomson and First Choice Holidays.

Between 2008 and 2010, Curry's in Cwmbran had records of Skinner and her husband buying high price electrical items including a £2,438.76 Samsung 3D TV in 2010.

Records at Tiles Ahead showed that Skinner had spent £2,258 in cash on bathroom fittings on June 25, 2007 before paying £1,300 for the bathroom to be fitted.

Bank statements also showed that Skinner, who was receiving both working and child tax credits, had spent thousands of pounds in retail outlets including Marks and Spencer, Zara, River Island and Next over the four-year period.

In 2011, she spent £10,195 on non-essential items excluding supermarket shopping or fuel.

Mr Cobbe previously said that Skinner and her husband had used money from selling "thousands" of counterfeit cigarettes to fund their “lavish lifestyle” which was far in excess of their means.

Both Skinner's and Leighton's homes were searched on February 22, 2013 where a quantity of cash was found in a safe in Leighton's home and £8,000 was found in a red BMW parked outside Skinner's home.

A secure lock-up near to Leighton's home was also searched and counterfeit cigarettes wrapped in cellophane were found in two ice-cream vans used by Leighton.

Proceeding.