An estranged couple have begun a bitter Court battle over a £200,000 bingo jackpot win.

Angela Thompson, 53, and Anthony Scaife, 43, had started three businesses and ploughed thousands into running their family home during their three-year relationship. But Mrs Thompson, of Shelf, told Huddersfield County Court how it had all turned sour following her huge win in January of last year.

She told the court that Mr Scaife and his new lover Debbie Rymer had locked her out of the new shop they had started together after their relationship broke down.

Two months ago, the Telegraph & Argus revealed how Mrs Rymer was ordered by a Bradford County Court judge to repay more than £40,000 to David Longbottom, a Bradford milkman and a former neighbour of hers, who had given her £50,000 of his life savings after becoming infatuated with her.

In court yesterday, it was heard that Mr Scaife had lodged the case to claim money and property from his time with Mrs Thompson who is refuting his claim saying she is still owed money.

She told the hearing: "I won the bingo money, about £209,000, one day after my birthday on January 17, 1999.

"But this might have been the beginning of our troubles and ruined my life."

Under questioning from her counsel, Ian Newbon, she said Mr Scaife had put virtually no money into her businesses - a wedding car hire firm, rented property and a curtain and carpet shop in Manchester Road, Bradford.

She said she had used her bank credit facilities to finance the various start-ups as well as money from her bingo win.

A second mortgage on her home, Cherry Trees Farm in Brighouse and Denholmegate Road, of about £75,000 and a present to her from Mr Scaife of a £17,000 Mercedes on her birthday in 1997, appeared to show that the couple were successful.

But it all turned sour at the beginning of last year.

She said: "After the bingo win I was putting money into joint ventures. When our shop Elegance By Design opened in January we were going to have a big opening day.

"But it didn't happen because Tony and Mrs Rymer decided it was their shop and they locked me out. What was I supposed to do - let them walk all over me?"

She claimed Mrs Rymer and Mr Scaife had started a relationship in January 1999 and said that in March of that year she had gone to Gibraltar to visit her brother Malcolm Tidswell.

"I got back after about a week and Mr Scaife wasn't there. He had gone and his stuff had gone," she told the court.

"He had been to Ireland with the lads for a weekend and came back about a week before I did."

She said Mr Scaife had telephoned her three days after her return and asked if they could meet up for a coffee.

They had a two-day reconciliation before he took the keys to a Jaguar they had bought telling her "That's all I came back for".

Mr Scaife's counsel, Brian Walker, told Mrs Thompson that she had entered the relationship with Mr Scaife with no assets and was earning about £100 a week, whereas soon after the couple began seeing each other Mr Scaife was on a salary of about £20,000 a year.

He asked her what had happened to the money from the bingo win and she replied half of it had gone to Mr Scaife and the rest to her brother who wanted to be bought out of his half of Cherry Tree Farm so that Mr Scaife could not "get his hands on it" during the trial.

Mr Walker told the hearing that Mrs Thompson's account that the ventures had relied on her finances was untrue.

He produced lists of credit card payments and cheque details which he said proved Mr Scaife was paying his way in both the professional ventures and home life.

The hearing continues.

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