A forensic accountant has told a court a murder-accused former paid a Sydney escort $106,000 before his wife's death.
Auckland eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne is on trial for the murder of his wife Pauline Hanna in 2021 and staging it as a suicide.
The High Court in Auckland heard on Wednesday that $106,131 was sent to the escort, Madison Ashton, who has been mentioned earlier in the trial as staying in Mt Cook with Polkinghorne in the weeks after Hanna's death, ending on January 5 in 2021.
Margaret Skilton, a forensic accountant working in the police financial crime unit, told the court a bank account owned solely by Polkinghorne had sent thousands of dollars to multiple women.
Skilton said when she analysed accounts she looked for "trends" and noticed a significant number of cash withdrawals.
It was also noticed there were weekly automated payments of $500 per week sent to the "Alaria Family Trust", of which a woman who Polkinghorne would visit on the North Shore was a trustee.
The amount was reduced to $350 but ceased altogether on March 24 in 2021.
Various one-off transfers were also sent to this woman, totalling more than $55,000.
A woman named Jody Kelly was transferred a total of $72,100, while another woman, named Lee, was paid a total of $35,905.
Two other women received $7160 and $13,550.
Between February 2018 and 2019, Skilton said approximately 120 cash withdrawals from ATMs in Australia were made, totalling about $115,000.
Skilton noted that Ashton lived in Australia and most withdrawals were made while Polkinghorne was in New Zealand.
Those withdrawals stopped when he began sending international transfers to Ashton's account.
Skilton said Pauline Hanna had only one account solely owned by her, which she had set up in 2020.
At the time of her death, this account was overdrawn by just over $90.
The trial continues.
