Michael Chudley’s former partner Francine Whale told the jury at Salisbury Crown Court today how she lost her business and her house and ended up homeless and penniless after hitching up with him.

She told Ian Glen QC, defending, that she had met Chudley, who denies murdering Devizes solicitor Jim Ward, that they met through Michael Keeling, or Mikey, a partner in Chudley’s building firm, Kingfisher Builders.

Mr Keeling was going out with Mrs Whale’s daughter Sara at the time.

Mrs Whale said she and Chudley had a relationship for a year and he moved into her home, Rowde Mill House.

Even after their relationship ended when Chudley returned to his girlfriend, Rachel Leigh, Chudley went on living at the house and made plans to double it in size, adding a Tudor-style extension.

At the time, Mrs Whale ran a successful business in Bradford on Avon, Bridge Tearooms.

She sold it and invested the money in the house. The plan was to sell the house for £2.5million, split the money after paying off debts, which would have cleared them £1million each.

She agreed with William Mousley QC, prosecuting, that Chudley was a control freak and inveigled her into registering his firm for VAT. He had been convicted of VAT fraud in the mid-1990s. She signed, also with his compunction, a form saying that she was a director of the firm, although she took no part in its running.

When Chudley brought Christopher Sear, a householder from Esher in Surrey, to view his handiwork at Rowde Mill House, later Kingfisher House, she allowed Mr Sear to believe she was an independent and satisfied customer of Chudley’s.

She told the court: “I was happy with the work Mike had done on my house and I didn’t see anything wrong in it. Mike asked me to do it and I didn’t say no to him.”

She agreed with Mr Mousley that Chudley had a controlling influence over her and was relieved when she was evicted from her property following a court action that lasted four years. She said: “I got my freedom back and I got my children back in my life.”

But even when she was living with her daughter Kerry Britten and her family in Staverton, Chudley would not let go.

He regularly phoned up, sometimes asking for money. She agreed to deposit £100 cash in his business account but he rang again on the morning of July 2 last year, wanting another £50.

She said: “I got very cross and put the phone down on him.”

Then, at 3.30pm the same day he rang again, merely saying: “I have shot Ward and it’s all your fault.”

The trial continues.