A financial adviser and his wife have been jailed over a £1.6m property fraud following the longest trial in Scottish legal history.

Scammers Edwin and Lorraine McLaren were described as "heartless and driven by greed" following their conviction last month.

The scheme involved deceiving people into handing over ownership of their homes.

Edwin McLaren was sentenced to 11 years in jail at the High Court in Glasgow on Tuesday, while his wife received a two-and-a-half year sentence.

McLaren, of Quarrier's Village in Inverclyde, advertised in national newspapers promising equity deals to homeowners.

Each deal offered was different but many of homeowners believed they were releasing equity from their properties.

Some were told they still had a share of their house or could pay it back at a later date.

The paperwork transferred the ownership of their home entirely to a third party, however, which allowed him to remortgage the properties and pocket the proceeds.

Edwin McLaren, 52, carried out fraudulent transactions from 2008 to 2012 in 24 properties across Scotland and northern England.

The couple's trial began on September 14, 2015, and took in around 320 days of evidence, making it the longest trial in both Scottish and UK legal history.

Edwin McLaren was convicted of 29 charges and Lorraine McLaren of two: a £128,000 mortgage fraud and money laundering.

Part of the reason the trial lasted so long was that the court heard evidence for a number of days from each witness on topics like conveyancing and accountancy.

Only 12 jurors from the original 15 remained at the end of the case and at one stage there was a break of three weeks as a juror got married.

Passing sentence, judge Lord Stewart said: "The evidence shows frankly breathtaking dishonesty in every aspect of your enterprise."