I wasn’t allowed to wear dresses twice, says ex-lover suing for £½m

Julie Ann Zelent, 51, says she will never wear the outfits again and that she intends giving them to charity.

She said she spent almost £70,000 from her own accounts during her relationship with businessman Alan Savage, whom she claims had promised to marry her.

She is seeking £500,000 damages at Inverness Sheriff Court for loss of earnings, work benefits and pension rights because she gave up a high-powered career with RBS in London to be with him in the Highlands.

She gave details of her extravagant lifestyle with Mr Savage, a former chairman of Inverness Caledonian Thistle, and told how he never wanted her to wear the same dress twice at business functions. She said: “He wanted me to look unique. He didn’t want me wearing the same outfit as anyone else.”

On one occasion, she spent £1,303 on a dress at Morgan’s boutique in Beauly. Ms Zelent said: “I would only wear them at one function. They would just sit at home in the wardrobe. I still have them boxed up. I didn’t want to get rid of them until the end of this case.”

Other expenses she listed as being paid from her own accounts included £4,200 on health and beauty treatments, £2,012 on health and fitness club membership, £410 on drink at Perth Races, £21,782 on household goods and fuel, and £7,869 on travel. The former RBS computer manager is also claiming for £271 for TV licences and £288 for council tax. Her counsel asked: “You claim the defender [Mr Savage] derived economic advantage from those contributions, but it may be argued that you also advantaged.”

She replied: “That may be. But I did not have to be up here. I would not have made these purchases if I was not with Alan.”

She insisted “exotic” trips abroad, including Australia, had been essentially to accompany Mr Savage on business. She went on: “It was stressful, and the pressure of dealing with the clients and the directors of the company meant you were constantly moving around, living out of a suitcase. It was not ideal. Moving across time zones was very stressful to me.”

Ms Zelent told the court she helped furnish their home in Inverness, spending again from her own accounts.

She has raised the civil action after being dumped by Mr Savage three years ago.

The court has heard she was paid an allowance of £4,000 a month rather than work at his Orion business.

The pair, she said, had talked of marriage earlier in 2008 but Mr Savage suddenly asked her to leave after a golfing weekend with his son, Paul, who, the court heard, had resented the relationship happening just months after his mother Linda’s death from cancer in 2006.

Ms Zelent revealed she had sold £25,000 of jewellery gifted to her by the tycoon to fund her £500,000 claim against her former lover. She told the court she is receiving Legal Aid.

She is now in a civil partnership with a former US marine in the US. Last year, Mr Savage married Lynne Cordiner, a former corporate fundraiser for Highland Hospice.

The case continues today.