'I feared wife spending my £50m'

The shipping tycoon accused of refusing to let his wife have a bank account hit back today, claiming she went flat out to spend his fortune.

London-born Greek tycoon George Tsavliris said he feared even his £50 million bank balance would not be able to stand the demands of wife Christiana's prodigious spending when they lived together at Brackendale, his £10 million home in Virginia Water, Surrey.

He was responding to claims made in a judgment granting Mrs Tsavliris, 42, a divorce on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour.

Describing her as a "demanding woman", Mr Tsavliris, 54, said: "She wanted me to buy her things all the time. She loved nice things. and I was frustrated trying to buy her things when perhaps I could not afford them.

"Had she earned a living, she would know what it means to sit back and say, 'Darling, we have to be a bit reasonable, a bit careful this month.' But because she never worked she never understood how the world went round.

"If I was talking about financial problems she would be talking about the new dress she was going to buy. If I said, 'Can't it wait?', was that the wrong thing to say?"

Her enthusiasms included shopping, jewellery and holidays, he said, but she had a costly passion for photography.

Speaking from Athens last night Mr Tsavliris complained: "First she wanted a dark room, and I got her all the best equipment. Then I bought her cameras - professional Nikon kit, Hasselblads at £3,000 a time, tripods and lights. She has everything - she has more cameras than David Bailey. Some of the things I could not afford - they were very expensive cameras. I had to go in and pay monthly.

"I went out of my way to accommodate her, yet the judge says I treated her like a second-class citizen. I send our three children to private schools. I pay for everything. There is not one penny she has given to our lifestyle - nor have her family." He added: "The real reason she was leaving was nothing to do with the reasons she cited in court. I do not know what the truth of the matter is. But I just want my children to have a stable family home."

He said his former wife had lived a life of incredible luxury at his house in Surrey and was given enough cash handouts in 12 years of married life to set her up for life.

She enjoyed holidays on board their private yacht and flitted between homes in Athens and Chelsea, he said. He dismissed her claims that he denied her a bank account, insisting she refused one because she calculated his handouts were more lucrative.

He spoke of his "great hurt" at being "misunderstood" by London divorce court recorder Alison Ball QC, who labelled him a controlling chauvinist who treated his wife as a second-class citizen. Mr Tsavliris said: "My wife was a diplomat's daughter and was not in the real world. She never knew what it was to have to go and pay a mortgage or any outstanding debt."

Lawyers for the two parties are negotiating a settlement and under divorce law she could be given up to a third of her former husband's fortune.

The couple first lived together in 1988 and married two years later in Westminster.

Mr Tsavliris is the second of three brothers who together operate what they say is the world's leading emergency-response shipping salvage operation, writes Paul Anast.

London-born George - the most Anglicised - smokes, enjoys the occasional drink and is said to be more of "a bon viveur" and "fun-loving" than Nikos, 56, and Andreas, 52.

Nevertheless, he is a fitness fanatic like his brothers, and a regular competitor in the London Marathon, in which he is reputed to have raised tens of thousands of pounds for various charities.