IT WAS money that they claimed was destined to help cancer patients in the final hours of their lives.

Night after night they would tour pubs and clubs in Hampshire and across the south of England and urge generous customers to hand over money to fund vital nurses who provide palliative care for the dying.

In reality they were a gang of greedy con artists who were shaking falsely branded tins, wearing fake charity identification badges and duping thousands of unsuspecting people into parting with cash that was simply pocketed by the callous group at the end of the night.

Today ringleader Gordon Coe, a well-known ex-pub landlord in Southampton, and his accomplices Pauline Hunt, Susan Christians and husband and wife team Kim and Ben Chapman are facing prison for their roles in the sickening scam that has deprived Marie Curie Cancer Care of many thousands of pounds.

‘Expenses’ Nobody will ever be able to calculate exactly what they stole. It was not known how many times a night, on how many occasions, they skimmed the tins and helped themselves to what they claimed was “expenses” to cover petrol and meals when they were out.

Even by one of their own admissions they were “the most evil b******* going” using the cash they generated to pay for their living. Four of the five lived off benefits, unable to work, but still managed to live a lavish lifestyle taking holidays together in the Dominican Republic, Tenerife and Greece.

Coe was the mastermind of the conspiracy, having initially applied to Marie Curie to become a fundraiser in November 2008. He had filled in the relevant paperwork and supplied two referees to vouch that he was an honest man – one of them being Ben Chapman who saw him as a father figure – and passed the stringent vetting process before being issued with charity T-shirts, a volunteer fundraiser ID card and a paying in book on the understanding he would collect in Southampton.

Coe, now a 65-year-old amputee who is wheelchair bound, was also given around 12 collection tins when he was visited by a local Marie Curie fundraising manager who told him the strict regulations he must abide by – which included that he could not recruit others to help and that collecting pub to pub was not something he should do.

But the code of practice, adhered to by all charities, was brazenly ignored by Coe who recruited the other four unbeknown to the charity.

And during the next two years he only deposited a total of £76 in the charity bank account in three small amounts.

It was on January 15, 2010, that the alarm bells began to sound when a woman – who turned out to be Hunt – appeared in the Salisbury Arms pub in Shirley carrying a tatty ID badge and a very dated looking charity tin.

A customer challenged her, told her he was not happy and later called Marie Curie to report her suspicious behaviour.

They charity naturally became concerned, knowing they did not have a woman collecting for them in that area. They called police while trying to make contact with Coe who was not answering their letters and calls.

Eventually, in March, he got in contact and told the charity he knew Hunt and had given her permission only to empty tins on his behalf. He then asked to be part of the annual Daffodil fundraising appeal and raised £230 which he banked.

But with police involvement ended because no crime had apparently been committed, the scam continued to grow and on the face of it, the gang thought they had the perfect system.

Kim Chapman and Susan Christians were also involved as collectors, with Ben Chapman a driver who would take them from pub to pub.

The women were carrying fake ID badges from the charity, tins with home printed logos and generic seals ordered from the Internet.