COLEEN ROONEY was subjected to a £5,000 blackmail plot involving hundreds of personal family photos on her stolen camera, a court heard yesterday.

Jennifer Green, 25, and Steven Malcolm, 42, both from Manchester, are accused of demanding the cash from the celebrity wife of former Everton striker Wayne Rooney.

Both defendants, who deny the charges, were arrested after Coleen Rooney’s mobile phone went missing while she was at a concert at the MEN Arena in Manchester in May, 2010.

Green’s partner, Lee Platt, has already admitted handling stolen goods and blackmail, the jury at Manchester Crown Court heard.

Deborah Gould, prosecuting, said: “The prosecution case is that these two defendants together with Lee Platt, who is the partner of Jennifer Green, came into possession of the camera and the memory card and then sought by unlawful means to make money out of the situation.”

Ms Gould continued: “The Crown says that the defendants acted as a group or gang, playing different roles in what happened next.

“The gang made contact with Manchester United Football Club and initially tried to extract £1,000 from Coleen Rooney’s agent for return of the memory card and the photographs.

“Following some unpleasant publicity about Wayne Rooney, they then decided to up the ante and increased the amount of their demand to £5,000.

“They approached various media outlets including Hello magazine, The Sun and (Daily) Star with a view to selling them, these private stolen images.

“After Hello magazine informed Wayne Rooney’s agent, a man called Paul Stretford, of the approach, the police were informed and decided to deploy an undercover police officer who pretended to be Coleen and Wayne Rooney’s publicity agent.”

Coleen Rooney is not expected to be called to give evidence, as there was no direct contact with her by the defendants.

The jury of seven women and five men heard that the undercover police officer pretended he wanted to buy back the camera and contact was made with the gang, meeting the defendant Malcolm in a Manchester city centre hotel.

“When he arrived for the meeting, Steven Malcolm was in possession of a black folder which contained 11 sheets,” Ms Gould said.

“Upon which were printed about 400 thumbnail-sized images which had come from the memory card contained within Coleen Rooney’s stolen camera.”

Police later found the fingerprints of both Green and her partner Lee Platt on pages within the folder, the jury was told.

The pair, along with Malcolm, were part of the plot to extract money from Coleen Rooney, Ms Gould said.

Green, of Heaton Park Road, and Malcolm, of Silkin Close, both deny blackmail and handling stolen goods.

On August 14, Platt, using the alias Lee Price, spoke to Mr Stretford on the phone, and suggested a figure of £1,000 for the return of the camera, the court heard.

“Mr Stretford told the man not to be silly and said that if he continued in this way the police would be informed,” said the prosecutor.

“Mr Stretford gave the man an hour to reflect.”

About three weeks later, on September 7, Platt rang Manchester United again and said that “in view of some adverse publicity which Wayne Rooney had recently received, things had changed”.

He upped his demand to £5,000, the jury was told.

By this time the police had deployed an undercover police officer in “an attempt to draw out the makers of the demands”.

The officer contacted the group by phone and arrangements were made to meet at the Marriott Hotel in the centre of Manchester on September 10.

Malcolm walked into the foyer of the Marriott Hotel and identified himself to the undercover officer, the court was told.

He handed over the folder of photographs and the camera memory card – and was promptly arrested, the jury heard.

The trial was adjourned until this morning.