London, July 24 (ANI): Henpecked hubby Anthony Walsh was saved from spending time behind bars for stealing 205,000 pounds after the judge presiding over his case took pity on the fact that the theft would never have happened if it hadn't been for the man's wife.
Walsh told the Northampton crown court that he took out fake loans, most of which his wife used to buy "vast amounts of clothes she never wore."
Judge Ian Alexander, QC, took pity on Walsh and gave him a three-year community order and 300 hours' community service.
"I do not believe you would have embarked on this course of action if your wife had not embarked on her spending activity," The Mirror quoted the judge, as saying.
Walsh, a senior loans adviser at HSBC in Northampton, confessed that he took out the bogus loans using the names of several unwitting family members.
His lawyer, Hugh Comerford, said that Walsh was "timid" and easy prey to wife Deborah, who got to the extent of arranging for an extension at their home which he came to know about only when workmen turned up at their home.
It was when HSBC called Walsh's mother-in-law to ask her to meet a monthly payment, that his fraud became public.
Still Alexander QC told him: "How you ever thought you would get away with it, I do not know. You did not get much personal gain for yourself other than to pay off the debts from your wife's behaviour."
Anthony and Deborah, who have two children, are now divorced and Walsh still owes the bank149,000 pounds.
But Deborah, 42, has now accused her ex-husband of lying claiming that he should have been jailed.
She insisted: "It's absolute rubbish that I spent all his money. I'm still amazed he could claim that." (ANI)
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