The parents of Madeleine McCann used a fund that was established to help search for the missing girl to make mortgage payments on their home, a family spokesman said Tuesday.

Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, have stopped working to run their very public search for their daughter, who disappeared during a vacation in Portugal's Algarve region on May 3, a few days before her fourth birthday.

"The fund has always had the ability to assist the family financially if necessary, and they've only used it to pay for two mortgage payments [both] earlier this year," said the spokesman, Clarence Mitchell.

"When they were made arguido [suspects] it stopped, which was a mutual decision on the part of the fund and the McCanns.

"They were happy to accept that their changed status meant they were no longer entitled to that assistance," he said.

Celebrities, including Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and soccer star David Beckham, made public appeals that helped raise money for the Find Madeleine fund, which raised at least one million pounds or almost $2 million Cdn.

Portuguese police have named a British man, Robert Murat, and Madeleine's parents as formal suspects, but have not filed any charges.

The McCanns deny involvement in the disappearance of their daughter, who reportedly went missing while the parents dined in a nearby restaurant at the resort. The girl was alone in the family's hotel room with her two younger siblings at the time.