Brother and sister fraudsters conned £4.5m out of investors through a vintage wine scam, a court heard.

Daniel Snelling, 38, of Basinghall Gardens, Sutton, is accused of four counts of fraud at Southwark Crown Court, and is joined in the dock by his sister Dina Snelling, 35, from Chislehurst, and cousin Rebecca McDonald, 42, of Bexleyheath.

His girlfriend, Kelly Humphries, from Wallington, will face trial over her alleged involvement at a later date.

The court heard Mr Snelling's company, Nouveau World Wines, convinced people to buy large quantities of fine wines, which the company said it would store at a wine vault in New South Wales, Australia while their stock value increased.

Staff at the company would cold call people and tell them wine was safer than gold as an investment as the wealthy people who bought vintage wine were recession proof, jurors heard.

The court heard how once money was handed over, much of the wine was never bought and when investors in the firm found out, it was folded and a second company was started, it is claimed.

Staff at Nouveau were told after one shift that at their next shift they would be working for another company called Finbow, the court heard.

Hundreds of people fell for the scam, including some elderly investers who would spend their life savings, thinking they would get a healthy return, the court heard.

Yesterday the jury heard from John Raven, a retired man who had bought over £113,000 worth of wine from the company.

He told the court: "In 2010 I was sent a letter from the wine vault in Australia telling me I had 300 bottles in my name there, when I know I had bought 450."

Another Victim, Tanya Nolan, told the court she invested in 2008 to help pay for her children's university education at the onset of the financial crisis.

She told the court she was rung by the company out of the blue.

She said: "I looked at their website and nothing seemed untoward."

The company told investers they had famous wine critic Robert Parker Junior to help them pick wines to invest in, the court heard.

When Mrs Nolan rang the Nouveau World Wines and wanted to sell some of her wine, they called her back once, and never heard from them again, the court heard.

Last week the court was told how the Snellings both used pseudonyms when meeting clients.

The four deny all the charges.

The trial, which is due to last 10 weeks, continues.