PA's husband speaks out

The husband of the Goldman Sachs secretary convicted of stealing £4.3million from her employers today spoke for the first time about life with a "greedy manipulative liar". Anthony De-Laurey, 51, claimed he believed his wife Joyti when she told him she was earning £120,000 a year plus bonuses as a high-flying PA at the investment bank.

Three-times married Mr De-Laurey said he now feels deeply let down by his 35-year-old wife. He said she was able to fool her family for so long because she was such a convincing liar.

"Joyti is very clever. She is a member of Mensa and has a great memory, which makes it easy for her to lie," he said. "She is manipulative and can charm the birds out of the trees.

"But she's very spoilt. Her parents gave her everything. Her father offered her a Mercedes if she went to university. She treated our son Max the same way, spoiling him. But the reason I think she took the money is just greed."

Mr De-Laurey, a former policeman, said he believed his wife's claims she had negotiated huge discounts on a holiday in Beverly Hills and a motorboat: "I had no idea Joyti was stealing. I don't think I'll ever know the truth about what happened. My wife has always been very ambitious. She previously worked in the motor trade and had made it as a woman in a man's world."

Mrs De-Laurey faces up to 10 years in prison when she is sentenced today at Southwark Crown Court. In April she was found guilty of 20 charges of obtaining money transfers by deception. She had forged her bosses' signatures in order to move money from their personal accounts to her own.

Mr De-Laurey and his mother-inlaw, Camden GP Dr Devi Schahhou, 68, both denied helping to launder some of the stolen money, but were convicted on four counts. They will also be sentenced today.

At their home in Cheam, Mr De-Laurey said: "The police found Cartier jewellery and watches in her cupboard. I never knew they were there. When we went on a three-week holiday at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, she said she had negotiated a discount because Goldman Sachs used it and we were paying the same rate as a three-star hotel. She told me she had been able to pay for a motorboat by trading currency and making £50,000.

"At the time I never thought to question her. Although we had separate bank accounts, she did show me her statements. She wanted us to move to Cyprus but I didn't want to give up my job. Joyti was insistent about starting a new life.

"The first I knew about her buying a £130,000 house in Essex was after she was arrested and her friend told me." He said he might have become suspicious if he had actually received the £220,000 Aston Martin she ordered shortly before her arrest in May 2002.

He added: "I love her and because we are married I stood by her out of loyalty, even though what she did was very wrong.

"When she first went to prison, Max, who is six, didn't want to read her letters. I won't take him to see her in Holloway. She doesn't seem sorry, she's expressed no regrets - if anything, she's been quite arrogant. I don't know where we stand. She's lied to me about so many things - only she and her boss Scott Mead [the Goldman Sachs executive she stole from] know what went on."

Mr De-Laurey has been sacked from his chauffeur's job after 11 years and is on benefits while his bank account is frozen. He plans to appeal against his conviction.

"I could be sent to prison and the worst part is having to tell Max I might not be back tonight," he said. "Joyti should never have implicated everyone else in her mess. What her mother has been through is awful, and it's taken a terrible toll on her health.

"Max was born two months premature, but a week after he was out of hospital she was at work. It's strange because she always said she didn't want Max to have the same childhood as she did, raised by a nanny until she was 15.

"Max had two childminders, and when she started work at Goldman Sachs I was lucky if I saw her for an hour a day. Sometimes I would not even see her for a few days."