THE former husband of fraudster Melissa Humphreys says he still has no idea what her parents' money was spent on.

Rob Humphreys spoke to the Gazette after his ex-wife, of Hutley Drive, Colchester, was jailed for three years on Friday.

READ MORE: Daughter jailed for three years after stealing parents' life savings

The 33-year-old said: "I first found out about it when I took a phone call from her sister a few days before Christmas.

“She said: ‘Mel has spent all of mum and dad’s money - there’s nothing left at all.

“I didn’t have anything to do with the money but what I did know is there were two accounts; a savings account and a current account.

Gazette:

Thief - Humphreys was jailed at Chelmsford Crown Court. Picture by John McLellan.

“I said: ‘Look, there’s a mistake, it’s probably the current account which has run down and there will be money in the savings account which Mel has invested.’ “But she told me it was all gone and she had never invested any of it.”

In the years which followed, Mr Humphreys attended interviews with police four times as he believes officers suspected he had played a part in the theft and fraud.

He added: “When I first spoke to the police, I didn’t believe it. I trusted her and I believed her.

“Then the amount kept going up each time and I couldn’t believe she had taken all the money and had nothing to show for it.

“I remember when Terry [Humphreys’ dad] came round, my TV was seven years old and my toaster and kettle were bought by friends when I moved into the house.

“I said to him: ‘If she has taken that money, it hasn’t been spent here.’

“Still to this day, I have no idea where the money is or what it was used for - but she definitely had a spending addiction.”

Mr Humphreys, who is now divorced from Humphreys, also challenged several points put forward by the fraudster’s solicitor in mitigation.

He said: “They mentioned me being made redundant and she used the money to top up her income.

“I was out of work for two weeks - and I had a computer business at the time so it literally made no difference to my income.”

At the time Mr Humphreys was working as a regional auditor for JJB Sports. When he was made redundant from that post, he took up a managerial role in the former JJB store, in Colchester High Street, before stints at JD Sports, in Clacton, and Mountain Warehouse, in Colchester.

He was then headhunted to run a sport shop, in Sheepen Road.

He added: “It is so annoying people who don’t know me now think she did this because I couldn’t provide - that has never been the case.”

Mr Humphreys also said the couple were married at 25, rather than 21 as the court was told, and the fraudster, who was working as an independent financial advisor at the time, would not have been handed control of her parents’ money until she was at least 24.

He added: “They also said the house was in danger of being repossessed. It never was.

“I don’t see how they could get that wrong. It’s just deceitful.”