The ex-wife of a financial advisor accused of embezzling £212,000 from an elderly client told how she reported him to cops after finding he’d joined an online dating service.
Kerry Lipton, 53, said her marriage to Gordon Couch crumbled after he moved their family to Hong Kong to take up a new job.
Couch, 56, had earlier controlled the finances of dementia sufferer Marjorie Stewart who died aged 91 after going into an Edinburgh nursing home.
Kerry told how she discovered Couch had signed up to a dating app days before she received a letter from Marjorie’s nephew asking him about missing cash from her estate.
She said the “jigsaw puzzle” came together as she realised they’d suddenly left the UK as will beneficiaries were asking for their bequests.
Couch, of Penicuik, Midlothian, is on trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court charged with embezzling £212,861 while holding power of attorney and executing Marjorie’s estate between April 2009 and May 2015.
Giving evidence on Thursday, Kerry Lipton said they were battling debt problems around 2008, with Couch owing around £117,000 as he tried to build his financial advice business called Utopia.
Kerry, a medical rep, said she regularly met Marjorie - a “sweet” and “nice” woman who was Couch’s client - and they even had her over for Christmas dinner.
Kerry said Couch was “almost like a son” to the pensioner, adding: “If she needed something he would be there.”
She told the jury the family’s finances seemed to be “improving” around 2013 when Marjorie passed away.
In April 2014 Couch told her about a job opportunity in Hong Kong, she added, and they decided to move there with their two young children.
But she said their relationship faltered as Couch became “erratic”, working long hours in finance while not earning money to support them.
Kerry said: “My blind faith in him ran out.”
After returning to Scotland with their kids, Kerry said Couch stayed to work in Hong Kong, making a few returns to the UK and selling his precious vinyl record collection as their money woes continued.
Kerry said she couldn’t understand Couch’s reluctance to leave Hong Kong when it wasn’t working out. She said the couple “effectively separated” in late December 2015 after she threw him out the house.
She was on a train on Valentine’s Day 2016, the court heard, when she gained access to the banking app for Couch’s business for the first time. She said: “I looked through and saw Gordon had joined a dating app at the beginning of December. I was furious. All my efforts to save my marriage were in vain because he had made a decision.”
Upon returning home, Kerry said a letter from Marjorie’s nephew had been delivered, urging her husband to “do the right thing” and contact them about will legacies.
She added: “It was like a jigsaw puzzle coming together. It made sense why he was staying in Hong Kong. He hadn’t settled the estate.”
The court was shown an email she sent to Couch saying: “Shame on you. Marjorie dies and a few months later you dream up a job in Hong Kong.”
In a later email she wrote: “Did you really think you’d get away with this?”
Kerry said her “world was falling apart” and her “emotions were all over the place”.
She told the jury she called Couch to demand answers and her estranged husband said: “You know what I’ve done with the money.”
In later emails, Kerry demanded Couch contact Marjorie’s family, telling him: “Do the right thing because I will find and expose you wherever you go.”
In another message she asked: “Is the plan to disappear into Asia? I’m finding your cowardice very disappointing.”
Kerry said she went to police to report the matter and was later “horrified” and “shocked” to discover the £80,000 she thought was missing from Marjorie’s estate was actually more than £200,000.
The couple are now divorced after more than 30 years together.
The trial continues.
