More than £100,000 in criminal cash was stashed in houses across Cumbria by a family intent on hiding it from police, a court heard.

Mark McCracken, 49, formerly of Wigton, appeared at Carlisle Crown Court yesterday charged with trying to pervert the course of justice and 12 counts of money laundering.

McCracken's mum Linda McCracken, 67, his sister Melanie Wilson, 45, and his uncle Roger Coulthard, 48, all of Brindlefield, Wigton, appeared in the dock alongside him.

Prosecutor Tim Evans said: "This is a case about greed and warped family values: the greed of the first defendant and the key defendant in particular, Mark McCracken. He is a career criminal who for decades has committed crime to make money."

Mr Evans briefly outlined McCracken's criminal record of 49 thefts, frauds and other offences committed since 1986.

He continued: "The Crown's case is that he was a career criminal who hid the money from his criminal assets, those portions he didn't spend anyway - literally, sometimes as great wadges of cash - hidden in houses connected to him and his family.

"But he also converted or disguised it, or to use another word, laundered it, by converting it into houses bought by him generally for cash and then held in false names."

Mr Evans argued that McCracken's family helped him hide the proceeds of his crimes.

He said: "Laundering the profits of the crimes McCracken committed became quite literally the family business with all these defendants playing their respective parts."

McCracken is charged with the following offences:

*Converting money he gained through crime into property by buying: a property in Derwent Avenue, Maryport, in October 1997; one in Marks Avenue, Raffles, Carlisle, in December 1997; and a property in Brindlefield, Wigton, in July 2001.

*Concealing, converting or disguising criminal money by letting a property in Brindlefield, Wigton.

*Attempting to pervert the course of justice on July 16, 2007 by claiming he had no assets and owned no property, when he owned or had interests in a number of properties and had a number of bank accounts in false names.

*Concealing or converting criminal money gained from the supply of drugs and fraudulent insurance claims between December 2008 and September 2014.

McCracken, Wilson and Linda McCracken are all charged with concealing, converting or disguising money gained illegally by letting a property in Derwent Avenue.

McCracken and Linda McCracken are charged with converting criminal money by buying a property in Brindlefield in July 2005 and hiding criminal money worth £56,190 in cash at the address.

McCracken and Coulthard are also charged with converting criminal money by buying a property in Brindlefield, Wigton in January 2003 and hiding criminal money worth £46,270 in cash at the address.

The defendants deny all the charges. The case continues.