A SECOND-HAND shop was at the centre of an international fraud conspiracy involving £500,000, a court was told yesterday.

Sonia Latchford, 33, ran the shop, Finders Keepers, in Redcar, which was a front for a gang from Manchester and London involved in credit card fraud.

The gang claimed payment for non-existent antiques sales totalling thousands of pounds, said Tim Bubb, prosecuting.

Credit cards, including some from banks in America and France, had been obtained using false names and addresses, with bogus firms set up to provide false employment details, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Mr Bubb said that Latchford might have been under the influence of her boyfriend, who was not in the dock with her, but his identity was known to the police.

Mr Bubb said that she used a machine to obtain money by laundering credit cards at her antiques business.

Her recorded sales included £2,000 on an Amex card for an ink stand; a Tiffany lamp for £5,000; a Worcester tea service for £2,300; and Spode footbaths for £2,000.

Soon after recording sales she would withdraw cash, and much of it went to a bogus property firm account in Manchester.

Mr Bubb said that Cleveland Police fraud squad called the investigation Operation West Coast.

The man who headed the racket used five aliases, had a string of addresses, drove a BMW car and still claimed benefit.

He made transactions in Houston, Texas, money transfers to Algeria, and paid for flight documents to Australia.

His fingerprints, and those of other gang members, were found on cheques and card application forms.

Latchford, and four men from Manchester and London, have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud between January 1996 and April last year.

They are Andrew Odoula, alias Odu, 32, of Plumstead, London; Gabriel Tolefe, 29, and George Dixon, 39, both of Tottenham, London; and Kayode Dunsin, 32, of Newton Heath, Greater Manchester.

Three other men, Darrell Lindsey, 42, of Longsight, Manchester; and Audel Denidni, 41, and Rilwan Akinyemi, 36, both of Denton, Manchester, have admitted obtaining and attempting to obtain by deception.

They will be sentenced today.