A MAN whose wife plundered nearly £200,000 from a youth football league told a jury they were 'not living any better than anyone else'.

And at his Swindon Crown Court trial, Kevin Prictor, who denies a charge of possessing criminal property, said he did not consider he had 'lived like a king'.

The 58-year-old electrical engineer insisted that he had no involvement in the family finances and didn't even open his own pay slips.

Because the money was paid directly into the joint account he held with 47-year-old Karen, his second wife, he said he left the paperwork in the glove box of his van.

He told the panel of nine women and three men that she ran the finances of the household and he just withdrew £10 or £20 a week in cash for spending money.

Asked by his barrister Gareth James "Were you living the high life?" he replied "It depends what you call the high life. I was not living any better than anyone else."

Prictor said not only did he not consider that he lived like a king but he also said he had no inkling his wife, who he said he loved and trusted, was defrauding the league.

Earlier the court heard how Karen siphoned off just shy of £200,000 from the coffers of the North Wiltshire and District Youth and Minor Football League.

She would transfer money, sometimes three times a day, into the joint account to prop up the family's spending in the five years up to June 2013, the court heard.

Giving evidence Prictor said he didn't even know who his mortgage was with until the police told him and couldn't recall what year he got married.

The jury heard that at the time the fraud started the couple were experiencing money troubles.

In a number of letters to Northern Rock they asked for their mortgage repayments to go to 'interest only' for a year as they struggled to make ends meet.

Though he signed the letters he said that they had been written by his wife, who worked for Cotswold District Council.

He said that he rarely used his debit card and had never used online banking, the system his wife had used to carry out much of her crime.

Asked why he allowed his wife to carry out all the dealings he replied 'Because I trust Karen.'

The court heard that the family had been on a number of expensive holidays but he said he never thought they couldn't afford them saying he thought they were funded by bonuses from work.

The court has heard that Karen Prictor admitted fraud and false accounting, where she doctored paperwork to try and cover up what she had done.

Margaret Rivers, 55, admitted fraud while her husband Andrew, who goes by the name Philip, 58, both of Ramleaze Drive, and both the women have admitted possessing criminal property.

Kevin Prictor denies the charge and the case continues.