Woodward parents deny fraud

London - The parents of the former au pair, Ms Louise Woodward, became "richer and richer and richer" while pleading poverty …

London - The parents of the former au pair, Ms Louise Woodward, became "richer and richer and richer" while pleading poverty and defrauding the appeal fund set up for their family, a court was told yesterday. A jury at Chester Crown Court, where Sue and Gary Woodward, both 44, deny defrauding the fund of more than £9,000, was told that the couple's wealth increased threefold since their daughter's arrest for the killing of a baby in her care in the US.

The Woodwards, now estranged, are alleged to have forged an invoice for non-existent accommodation costs before and during Louise's trial in November 1997.