A scientist swindled thousands of pounds meant for research at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, a court heard.

Prof Peter Rolfe, 55, and his assistant Carol Benmakroha, 39, siphoned more than £12,000 from a trust fund at the Headington hospital when he left his job there, Birmingham Crown Court was told.

Rolfe was head of bio-engineering at the John Radcliffe and did research into cold-stress in newborn babies, a major killer in the Third World.

He left Oxford to work as head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at North Staffordshire Hospital and the University of Keele's School of Post-Graduate Medicine.

Stephen Lineham, prosecuting, said that Rolfe set up an account in 1992. More than £160,000 was paid into it from various sources and most was withdrawn in cash.

As well as taking money specifically for scientific studies at the John Radcliffe, payments were also allegedly made into the account after machinery made in North Staffordshire was sold to America, Germany and Slovenia.

The foreign buyers had no idea that they were paying Rolfe, who used the cash for his own purposes, Mr Lineham told the jury.

Rolfe, of Oakley, near Market Drayton, Shropshire, and Benmakroha jointly deny conspiracy to defraud Oxfordshire Health Authority, the North Staffordshire Hospital NHS Trust and the University of Keele.

Rolfe also denies three separate charges of theft of machinery from North Staffordshire Hospital NHS Trust and the University of Keele.

Benmakroha, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, has also denied charges of theft of approximately £3,000 belonging to Keele University and the North Staffordhire Hospital NHS Trust.

The alleged offences are said to have taken place between February 1992 and June 1997.

The hearing, which is expected to last six weeks, continues.