A WOMAN whose family "lived in style" while on benefits could be sent to jail after being convicted of money laundering.

Jobless mother-of-seven Janis Gabriel, 49, had more than £18,000 cash, raised by crime, hidden away at her Padiham council semi when police raided it last year, Burnley Crown Court heard.

She claimed the money was from gambling and benefits saving and that her "penny pinching" husband John held the family purse strings.

Yesterday, the defendant, who claimed £2,500 benefits a month for herself, her unemployed disabled husband John and her three teenage sons - and said she got too much to spend - was found guilty of two charges of possessing criminal property.

Gabriel, of Garden Street, was bailed until November 26 for a pre-sentence report.

She was warned by Recorder Alan Conrad QC that all options were open to him, including prison.

The defendant, who also has two previous convictions for public order offences and who last October was convicted of assault causing actual bodily harm, will now face a separate hearing over the cash held by police under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Burnley Crown Court has been hearing how officers found £11,700-£12,000 of it stashed under the mattress of a four poster water bed, when they searched the defendant's house in July last year. Ten weeks later, in September, officers returned and discovered another £6,070, most of it tucked away behind the foam lining of an air pistol case.

Police were also surprised to find the three-bedroom property had a "heated" swimming pool and a £600 sauna in a conservatory, a new kitchen and bathroom and expensive electrical equipment, fittings and appliances.

The house also boasted a state-of-the-art CCTV system and a 42-inch plasma screen television worth £3,000.

Good quality stereo equipment was "all over the house" and there were several mobile phones, designer watches and boxes of trainers and car CD players.

Gabriel had defended herself for the last two days of the four day trial after sacking her legal team.

In her short closing speech to the jury the defendant claimed the police knew the money was her husband's.

She continued: "There has been a lot of publicity and I think if I was reading it I would have believed it. But it's not true.

"I have not done anything illegal."