A trust fund manager told a court she was relieved to be caught after plundering £175,000 from an elderly client to feed her boyfriend's lavish lifestyle.

Luisa Smith, 35, said she stole money because she was infatuated with Jason Thomas, 42, and was glad when the authorities eventually moved in. 

She told jurors Thomas, a personal trainer of George Lane, South Woodford, had begged her for months to take thousands of pounds out of trust funds she managed for a 71-year-old female client.

Thomas is accused of blowing the money on a jet ski, fast cars and designer watches, while telling Smith he needed the cash for child support and to clear debts. 

Smith, who has served a two year jail sentence for fraud, told Southwark Crown Court she had lost her sense of perspective towards the end of the scam. 

She was arrested when she returned from holiday in August 2009, and eventually confessed all to police.  

“I knew it was wrong, and I didn't know how to get myself out of it and stop giving the money", she said. 

“When I was arrested, taking the money had come to an end and I didn't have to live a lie.” 
Smith agreed it was a ‘blessed relief’ to be able confess. 

She said the scam was orchestrated by Thomas and funds were funnelled through accounts belonging to his brother Steven, 43, and former Credit Suisse banker Rory Codd, 34. 

Thomas looked at buying an £85,000 boat in February 2008, took another woman on holiday to Thailand, bought a £3,460 Rolex watch, and splashed out on a Mercedes SLK Kompressor 200 and an Audi TT, it was claimed. 

In July 2009, when he found the boat he wanted to buy had been sold, he organised for one to be custom-built for him at a cost of more than £100,000.

Smith, a trust fund manager at Capita Trustees in Jersey, plundered two high-profile accounts and even re-mortgaged her flat to continue providing Thomas with money, the jury heard.  

“Jason knew where the funds were coming from so he was a party to it”, she said.

Smith initially refused to tell police who was behind the plot, it is said, but has now turned prosecution witness against Thomas, his brother, and Codd.

Jurors have heard Smith and Thomas started dating in 2008, and he soon started pleading with her for money - and continued to do so even after she had been arrested.  

He denies three counts of conspiracy to acquire criminal property and one count of theft.  

Codd, of Greencroft Gardens, Kilburn, and Steven Thomas, of Ongar Road in Brentwood, both deny two counts of acquiring criminal property.