My wife’s swindle cost me £25,000

Feb 22 2008 by Sam Wood, The Journal

A MAN whose wife tricked him out of £25,000 spoke out last night about her deceit.

Caroline Temple, 32, was spared jail yesterday after pleading guilty to two charges of forgery.

Last night her husband John said he had been told by his solicitor in advance of the sentencing that it was unlikely his wife would be sent to prison because she has custody of their children.

Mr Temple said: "I am just delighted justice has been done and that she has been found guilty."

The 36-year-old, of Allerburn Lea, Alnwick, has been married to Caroline since 1996 and they have two children aged five and seven.

But his wife, a receptionist and swimming instructor at Willowburn Sports and Leisure Centre in Alnwick, left him last April.

When Mr Temple, who works for his father Kevin’s building firm, looked into the mortgage on the couple’s home, he discovered his wife had taken a loan of £15,000 against the mortgage by forging his signature and another loan of £10,000 by tricking him into signing a form. Mr Temple thought he owed £45,000 on the mortgage, but it turned out he actually owed thousands more.

The couple are now in the middle of divorce proceedings and are in dispute over the custody of their children.

Mr Temple recalled how his wife, now living in Percy Road, Shilbottle, handled all the couple’s finances while they were together. She would be "boiling" if he ever gave her money in cheques and would always ask for cash.

And he remembered how at Christmas 2006, she told their children to let him have a lie-in. While at the time, he thought this was a loving gesture, he now believes that this was to allow her to intercept the red bills that were mounting up.

When she left, he did not know what bank they were with or who their mortgage was with as he had trusted her to deal with everything.

Mr Temple recalled the effect the discovery of his wife’s actions had on him and described marrying her as "the biggest mistake of my life."

He said: "You trust your wife. You read about things like this in the papers, you never think it is going to happen to you. It is unreal, it has been the worst year of my life.

"The day I found out about the mortgage, I was crying on the phone. I totally and utterly trusted her.

"I went to the doctor and broke down crying, I just could not believe it. I am renowned for being a hard worker, I have just tried to do the best that I can for my family – to one day find out I had a double mortgage and to have all these red letters to put up with, it was just unreal to find out.

"To have a house with kids running riot and then all of a sudden quiet, it was hard to take, then getting all these red letters which I had to repay, it was not easy. My work suffered and I just had to pick myself up again."

Most of the debts incurred by his wife have now been resolved. And Mr Temple said of her sentence: "Even if she got a £10 fine, it is the fact she is guilty I am pleased about."

Page 2: Marriage crumbled amid debts and forged signatures