UNEMPLOYED Paul Rowlands lived the high life thanks to bundles of cash heaped on him by his thieving wife, it was claimed in court.

The 45-year-old bought a Range Rover, Harley Davidson motorbike, holidays abroad, expensive photographic gear and had his credit card bills paid, Swindon Crown Court heard.

But it is claimed the luxury lifestyle was funded from some of the £1.7m his wife Beryl has admitted stealing from Dunbar Bank.

Rowlands, of Yew Tree Cottage, Blunsdon, pleads not guilty to handling just under £35,500 in stolen cash between August 1997 and November 1998.

He also denies dishonestly receiving wrongful credit amounting to some £17,000 between September 1997 and April 2000.

Prosecuting, Michael Hopmeier told how Mrs Rowlands who was jailed last month for four-and-a-half years for theft stole £1.5m in notes from the till at the bank she managed in Sackville Street, London.

Mr Hopmeier said: "It appears that between 1993 and June 2000 Mr Rowlands wasn't working. Amongst other reasons he had pain in his left knee following a number of operations. He wasn't working, so where else was the money coming from?"

He said that Mrs Rowlands' salary rose from £29,000 a year in 1996 to £40,000 in 2000 not enough, he said, to finance her husband's big spending.

He said Mr Rowlands paid £27,000 for a two-year-old Range Rover and police investigators found Mrs Rowlands had stolen cash amounting to £30,00 around the same time.

Mr Hopmeier said: "There is large spending, luxurious spending, and whoever knows where that money came from. The issue is what did the defendant know, not now, but at the time."

Dunbar Bank accountant William Coombe confirmed to the court that he investigated Mrs Rowlands' theft and found she had stolen a total of £1.775 million.

He explained how she ran a sophisticated scam in which she would debit Dunbar Bank money to pay off certain credit card company bills.

Stephen Matthews, a salesman for Land Rover centre TH White, of Wootton Bassett, told the jury how he accepted £27,000 in cash from Paul Rowlands in payment for an N-registered Range Rover, which was paid in notes from a money bag.

"I was paid in cash, as in bank notes," he said. "Occasionally we get people who pay £5,000, £10,000 or £15,000 but when someone pulled nearly £27,000 out of their coat pocket you don't forget that."

The case continues