A two-timing husband cheated his wife with a £144,000 lie to get out of his credit card crisis, York Crown Court heard.

Graham Reeds, prosecuting, said that Philip Kenneth Ewen, 53, remortgaged the family home without telling his spouse, Joy Ewen.

Then, within a month of the mortgage company handing over the money to pay off his £70,000 escalating credit card debts, he walked out on her and moved in with the girlfriend his wife knew nothing about.

Finally, he failed to make payments on the £144,000 remortgage. In just over two years, the debt rose to £180,000 and the finance company forced the sale of the house.

"You have done a pretty despicable thing," the Recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman, told Ewen and warned him he could yet face civil court proceedings over the money. But the judge let the former bankrupt, and now divorced window cleaner, walk free from court after Ewen made allegations about his wife's conduct and the circumstances in which he ran up the debts.

He gave evidence that the credit card debts were to pay for family expenses including two cars.

Ewen, now of Cawood Crescent, Church Fenton, was jailed for two years suspended for two years. He pleaded guilty to deception.

"What a load of rubbish," Ewen said of the prosecution case as he left court with the new woman in his life, by whom he has a child.

In court he had told the judge under oath that he had met her 12 months before he left Mrs Ewen, but they had only been "friends" until after he moved out of Ryecroft Avenue, Woodthorpe, York.

Prosecuting, Graham Reeds said Mrs Ewen reckoned her husband's remortgage manoeuvres had cost her £65,000.

Both Ewens lived in and had equity in the Woodthorpe house in 2002. The husband was very secretive about his money matters and told her nothing.

In December 2002, to get the remortgage, Ewen forged a letter apparently from her, claiming that she did not live in the house, although she did. He also signed an application form which claimed that Ewen had never been made bankrupt, though he had been in 1984 when his first business went under. He was having problems with his second business in 2002, said the barrister.

Ewen gave evidence that his wife knew about his financial problems and refused to help. The credit card bills mounted up because he made minimum payments on them.

For Ewen, Stephen Twist said he was inept financially. He had committed the crime out of desperation and a complete lack of judgement.

The court heard that the wife got £22,168 from the £210,000 sale of the house and the finance company got all its money back. Outside court, Ewen said he divorced his wife in February 2005.

Updated: 08:35 Monday, October 10, 2005