Josephine Tonna
, lent £3000 for living expenses, the money has not been repaid. A loan of £20,000 from an unidentified person was made in May 2014. Mrs Adams did not wish to name the lender because she had not received permission to do so. 26. In her second witness statement and oral evidence Ruth Adams dealt with matters raised by the NCA including credits and debits in her bank account and income from employment and her companies. Since June 2010 Ruth Adams has earned between £8000-£9000. When her husband was working for Universal Imports Limited he would give her an allowance and pay the rent. By January 2012 Ruth Adams had spent the entirety of the proceeds of the sale of Fallowfield save for an amount outstanding which comprised a loan of £60,000 to Broking Limited. The loan has now been repaid to her. 27. Ruth Adams received £16,630 for work as an interior decorator. She provided design work on five houses in Perthshire for Dale Golder. Some years ago Ruth Adams had done an online course which she did not complete but she has an eye for colour and design. Dale Golder’s wife is a friend of many years standing. Ruth Adams asked Dale Golder for work as she knew he was carrying out restoration of the houses. She did not present a portfolio or references to him, it was unnecessary as Dale Golder had seen her house and he liked the way it was decorated. They did not discuss how much she would charge for the work. Dale Golder came to a decision as to what he would pay and she agreed it. Dale Golder sourced the fixtures and fittings and Ruth Adams chose them. She went to Scotland on three occasions to oversee the work. Terence Adams was not involved in the business. The monies were paid in October 2012 and April 2013 on completion of the work. A document entitled “Invoice” was supplied by Ruth Adams to Dale Golder following payment. 28.Stara Stara Limited is a jewellery business which was incorporated as a limited company in January 2013. Prior to that it was known as Stara Stara, Ruth Adams was the sole owner. The company has never traded. In February/March 2013, together with her daughter, Ruth Adams visited China to source material for the company. She spent between £4000 and £5000 on the trip. Ruth Adams said that she came out of Stara Stara because her husband was unable to find work and she was encouraging him to design for her. 29.Ruth Adams is CEO of N1 Angel Limited an online clothing company registered in her sole name. Her husband has always designed jewellery and has always been interested in designing clothes. As he could not find any work in jewellery design and was suffering from depression, Ruth Adams encouraged him to design clothes for her first collection. The company has made no real money. Dale Golder has bought four to six jumpers. The products are manufactured by Sterling Wholesale Limited which is owned by Michael Ellis. Sterling were late in producing the first collection of clothes, as a result a photo shoot could not be done, this delayed the production of the website which caused difficulty in selling of clothes. The company owed Sterling £80,000, now reduced to £52,000 by Sterling who acknowledge responsibility for late delivery. Terence Adams has no shares in the company, he is not a director. He is, however, prominently displayed on the press page as the designer of clothes for the company. 30.On 28 May 2013 Dale Golder transferred £35,000 to Ruth Adams. This is a loan to assist in the development of N1 Angel. £25,000 was invested in the company, £10,000 was used, with the knowledge of Mr Golder, for living expenses. Ruth Adams provided no documentation, business plan, designs, drawings or written projections as to how the company would make money to Dale Golder. She believed that he thought investing would be a good idea, he could see that Terence Adams dresses well. The written agreement drafted by the solicitor documenting the loan was not drawn up until some two months after the loan was made. It was put to her that the document was prepared three weeks after a directions hearing before Nicol J which required evidence from Mrs Adams and her husband by 8 August 2013. It was suggested that this document was produced so that there was “evidence” to explain the transfer of £35,000. She denied the suggestion. Asked if she was aware of the connection between Michael Ellis of Sterling Wholesale Limited and Dale Golder, Ruth Adams said that as a result of a conversation she had with Dale Golder, she realised that he must know Michael Ellis which is why she went to Sterling Wholesale Ltd.Expenditure31.Ruth Adams produced two schedules: the first detailed her comments on the debits and credits in her Co-operative current account for the period 14 September 2010 to 17 September 2013; the second provided comments on credits in her bank account between 26 April 2007 to 17 September 2013. The first schedule detailed expenditure, said by the Crown to average £97,000 a year, a figure disputed by Ruth Adams. Expenditure for which Mrs Adams accepted responsibility and upon which she was cross examined included:•The Grove Spa, £3,850 (£3640 in cash) June 2010. This was a birthday present for Terence Adams upon his release from prison. Asked why a large element of it was in cash Mrs Adams said at the time she had some cash.•Dental treatment £12,044 (£11,756 in cash). Asked why there was a substantial payment in cash Ruth Adams said the monies were paid over a period of time.•Purchase of her husband’s watch at auction £2700 (£1000 in cash) March 2010. Mrs Adams said this watch had been bought for her husband by his mother for his 40th birthday, she purchased it at auction for sentimental reasons. •Court House Clinic £2583 (£1068+in cash) payments made to a slimming clinic between July to September 2013. Ruth Adams said that a number of her friends had seen how much weight she had lost and asked if she would buy extra sachets for them which explained the cash payments.•Payments to A1 Self Storage Limited £5176+(£3250 in cash) for the period March 2011 to September 2013. There are no documents to substantiate payments to the company save for the entries in Ruth Adams’ bank account.32.Ruth Adams was questioned upon the high percentage of cash included in these payments, it being suggested that the reason for the cash was to minimise the appearance of lavish spending so that the bank account did not show how high the spending had been. She responded by saying that she had never hidden the fact that she had made these payments through her bank account. The evidence of Ruth Adams as to expenditure on restaurants and the Royal Opera House was at one with that of her husband. She believed she had paid the bill at Browns restaurant on no more than three occasions. As to trips to Italy in 2009 and New York in 2010 these were paid for by friends or family. Items purchased there were presents for members of the family.33. On 8 September 2011 Ruth Adams transferred £60,000 to