Pair deny missing Ben's fund theft

Ben's family have never given up hope of his return

Two women from Wrexham have denied stealing thousands of pounds raised to search for a boy who went missing on a Greek island nearly 13 years ago.

The mother and daughter admitted burgling the home of the grandparents of missing Ben Needham from Sheffield.

However, the pair said they did not take £27,000 set aside to help look for Ben - who disappeared as a toddler while on holiday in Kos on 24 July 1991.

At a hearing in Lincoln Crown Court on Monday, Joan Jarvis and her daughter Alison, who had a relationship with one of Ben's uncles, were warned they face jail.

The court heard the pair had stolen a games console from the home of Eddie and Christine Needham but they denied taking any cash.

The money was to be used to finance flights as part of the continuing hunt for Ben.

Custody warning

During the hearing, Recorder Nicholas Dean QC asked the Jarvis' : "Do you deny stealing the 27,000 pounds in cash from the Needham family?"

They replied: "Yes."

At the time of the burglary in May last year Joan, 49, and Alison, 23, knew the Needham family through Alison's relationship with one of Ben's uncles, the court heard.

The pair pleaded guilty to a charge of perverting the course of justice by asking a witness to provide a false alibi for Joan.

The mother and daughter were granted bail and the case was adjourned.

But they were warned they would probably face custody even if the trial of issue hearing decided they had not taken the money.

Reward offered

Ben disappeared from outside a farmhouse which was being renovated by his grandparents on the island of Kos.

Theories since have suggested Ben has been killed, abducted or sold on to a childless family. Police have never closed his file into his disappearance.

The Needham family have offered a reward of 150,000 euros (£105,000) for information about their son's whereabouts.

Police in the UK have made fresh attempts to trace Ben, who would now be 14, by issuing a digital image of how he might look now.

A private investigator from south Wales who went to Kos last October to search for Ben believes he could have ended up in Scandinavia.