A man and a woman from Romania have each been jailed for 30 months for forcing six children to beg in London.

The man, 36, and woman, 33, pleaded guilty to child neglect at Reading Crown Court. The man also admitted four counts of fraud and money-laundering.

The children were forced to beg on the streets for up to 12 hours a day, not sent to school and had no access to doctors. Some had cigarette burn marks.

The pair trafficked the children to the UK, Metropolitan (Met) Police said.

The couple, who worked for a gang based in Romania, were arrested in the house they shared with the children in October 2009 following months of surveillance as part of Operation Golf.

The surveillance on the pair began after the Met identified that one of about 1,000 children trafficked by a gang in the south-eastern town of Tanderei, Romania, was living in the UK with the couple.