Michael Swann's wife never questioned where her husband got the money to fund his passion for cars or interest in boats, a Dunedin High Court jury heard yesterday.
Anna Devereux's evidence was read to the court on the eighth day of the trial of Swann (47), the former Otago District Health Board chief information officer, and his friend and business associate Kerry Harford (48), on multimillion-dollar fraud charges.
Ms Devereux married Swann in 1995, but is now separated from him. They had been friends since the late l980s.
"Michael loves cars and one would turn into another, but that was his domain and I never asked where the money had come from to buy them."
Cars were traded in her name, but she had no involvement in their purchase and never drove them, Ms Devereux told Justice Stevens and the jury.
"I assume Michael drove them, but I had zero interest in vehicles."
Swann's salary from the board, $3300 a fortnight in 2006, was paid into her bank account fortnightly.
Her husband did not have access to her account, but when he came out of bankruptcy he traded through a company called Computer South Ltd and had access to funds there, she said.
Swann and Harford deny three charges of dishonestly and with intent to defraud using 198 invoices to obtain $16.9 million from the board, for computer-related services which the Crown says were never provided.
The Crown says Harford-owned company Sonnford Solutions Ltd invoiced the board for computer-related services.
When the money was received, Harford deducted 10% and forwarded the remaining 90% to Swann, or structures associated with Swann, including Computer South.
Ms Devereux said all she knew about the company was it had something to do with boats and possibly computer things.
She was not involved with the company, other than being recorded as a shareholder at one stage, and had no idea how it generated funds.
Three company cheques, presented as evidence in court, had signatures which looked like hers, but she did not think were hers.
"I probably did sign some cheques for Computer South Ltd, but I don't really recall as it was a long time ago. I never filled out any cheques; just maybe the odd signature."
The handwriting on two of the cheques looked like Swann's, she said. Ms Devereux said she never heard of the company Sonnford Solutions until October 2006.
"And then that was probably from Michael when he had an inkling of what was going down."
Ms Devereux was removed as a shareholder of Computer South on September 14, 2006, but she had no idea why she was removed or who instructed it be done, she said.
The couple owned two properties in Wanaka and two in Dunedin, as well as a "rumpty old crib" up the Pig Root, at Waynestown.
She was not aware of what properties were owned under the various trusts.
Evidence from Peter Ibbotson, a plumber and friend of Swann's since 1987, who was the director of Computer South, was also read out in court.
Mr Ibbotson was also a shareholder in the company, along with lawyer Grant Fyfe and Ms Devereux.
Other than holding the title of director, he had little to do with the company and was involved in name only, he said.
Swann managed the company.
Mr Ibbotson said he recalled signing "heaps" of cheques, signing blank cheques, and signing Ms Devereux's signature at times when she or Swann were not available.
For "a while", he and Ms Devereux were the nominated signatories, but "at some stage" Swann became a signatory and was able to sign cheques on his own.
In the early days, the business was to do with computers, but later went into boats and "things like that".
It was also in the business of buying and selling cars, he said.
He did not know where Computer South Ltd's income came from and he was not aware of any written contracts between Computer South and Sonnford Solutions.
He never saw any contracts between Sonnford and the hospital, he said.
