A BRIDE became a victim of her conman husband from the moment they were married and went on to lose £50,000 to him in just four years.
Mechanical engineer Colin Jarvie, 38, of Lower Anchor Street, Chelmsford, even ducked out of his Far East honeymoon with bride Letizia Salaris by saying he was ill and had to go to hospital.
Jarvie didn't even go home with her after the wedding and although she wanted see him in hospital, he told her she couldn't as doctors kept moving him.
But he was never in hospital. He had paid for the June 2012 wedding and honeymoon with his employer's credit card, which was declined. Soon afterwards, he started stealing from his wife to help fund his taste for expensive cars and clothes.
A few months later, he took her £8,200 engagement ring 'to be cleaned', but pawned it for £2,000 before claiming to his insurers that it was lost and getting an £8,000 payout.
For almost four years, Jarvie also stole the £1,000 she paid him each month towards their mortgage, only paying the £600 interest on it. In total, she lost £50,400 to him. But Gloucester Crown Court heard on Thursday last week that Scots-born Letizia Salaris, who Jarvie met online, was not his only fraud victim.
Jarvie, originally from Motherwell, Lanarkshire, also duped his employers, customers, insurance companies and a Cash Converters shop.
During his two years of deceptions he abandoned his Audi A3 company car at Gatwick airport where it racked up £600 in parking fees and £1,000 of damage – and instead drove around in luxury hired vehicles including a Range Rover and an Audi RS4 sports car.
He had bought the Audi on credit and a county court judgement for £16,000 was made against him for defaulting on the payments.
Jarvie, who voluntarily attended Chelmsford Police Station on New Year's Eve last year, admitted seven charges of fraud and one of theft involving a total of almost £100,000.
Prosecutor Julian Kesner said Jarvie had four previous offences of dishonesty on his record more than a decade ago.
He worked for Socomec, a company dealing in thermal imaging and disaster rescue equipment in Cirencester, Gloucestshire.
Until 2012 the company had no problems with him but then they discovered he had spent £5,000 on personal items on his business credit card. While off ill, before and after the wedding, further anomalies were found in his expenses.
As well as cheating the company out of a total of £24,000 – including another £7,900 on his credit card – he had also duped a customer, by selling him a thermal imaging camera for £8,500 he never received.
Mr Kesner said the total losses suffered by all Jarvie's victims was £92,000.
Joe Maloney, defending, said Jarvie accepted his offences were "dreadful" but he had started to make reparation.
He had signed over his £34,000 pension fund to his wife and also his £8,000 share of the equity in the house, he said.
Jarvie did suffer a serious illness – an excess of iron – and had to have a pint of blood removed from him every week, he added.
Judge Jamie Tabor QC jailed him for 27 months.
