Bigamist Lee Naugher set to wed again
Aug 27 2010 The Journal
A NORTH East casino manager has escaped a jail sentence after admitting an offence of bigamy.
Lee Naugher was still married to his first wife, Helen, when he tied the knot with another woman in South Africa.
The 38-year-old, of Crofton Street, South Shields, appeared at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court yesterday and pleaded guilty to bigamy.
He was facing up to six months in prison for the offence, but magistrates decided to impose a 12-month community order.
The court heard that Naugher married his first wife in July 2005 and that they separated in May 2009, but they did not go through any divorce proceedings.
Then in March this year, he travelled to South Africa and married Michelle Du-Plessis.
Naugher, a manager at Grosvenor Casino in Newcastle, did not tell his new wife of his first marriage. She was “shocked and upset” after she found out, but has now resumed her relationship with him and they plan to re-marry.
Prosecutor Paul Anderson said: “Police attended his home address and recovered a second marriage certificate.
“Officers spoke to his wife, Helen. She said she was still married to him and never made any efforts to divorce him. He was interviewed by police and he accepted he married Helen in 2005 and left her.
“He had a relationship with a female, Rachel Eklund. He was involved in that relationship when he travelled to South Africa where he met an old flame, as it were, Michelle Du-Plessis.
