A Zimbabwean ‘kept woman’ who was showered with luxury gifts by her fiance flung down her engagement ring in court after being ordered to repay him more than £100,000.
Nurse Trish Garikayi, 37, said she was a given a Porsche 911 and a £100,000 diamond bracelet from Aspreys by love-struck businessman, Wisdom Penfold, 58.
But Mr Penfold claimed their relationship turned sour after he caught her in bed with another man.
They pair ended up locked in a bitter court battle over money.
And a judge at Central London County Court has ruled that she ‘misappropriated’ money Mr Penfold entrusted to her when blinded by love.
Miss Garikayi has been ordered to repay him £116,000, lawyers’ bills, plus a 20% share of her £340,000 home.
She earlier claimed to be a ‘kept woman’ and insisted that the money, like the luxury goods he lavished upon her, was a non-returnable gift.
But Judge Alexander Hill-Smith said she had her ‘eyes firmly on winning the case’ and ‘unhesitatingly preferred’ Mr Penfold’s account of events.
After the judge announced his decision, Miss Garikayi hurled her £2,500 engagement ring across the courtroom towards her ex-fiance.
Mr Penfold calmly picked up the discarded diamond band and handed it to his solicitor.
Earlier he accused her of spending over £200,000 of his money, which was supposed to go towards a home for the loved-up couple.
And now a judge has ruled that she ‘misappropriated’ money Mr Penfold (pictured outside Central London County Court) entrusted to her when blinded by love.
They met in a hospital cafe in 2009, but Mr Penfold claimed the ‘perfect’ relationship came to an end in 2015, when he caught her with another man.
He came home unexpectedly to find his younger lover with a doctor in the house, he told the judge.
The tree importer and exporter, of Lydia Park, Cranleigh, said the relationship was a ‘happy one’ for years and they got engaged in 2013.
But the weeping businessman was so shaken up by his ‘completely shocking discovery’ that Miss Garikayi had to take him to A&E, the court heard.
She claimed they split up earlier, in June 2015, because he had got together with another woman, with whom he now has a child.
Mr Penfold was still married to another woman when he first started seeing Miss Garikayi, but he said the marriage had ‘not been close’.
His wife was ‘comfortable’ with his new relationship, and Mr Penfold said: ‘I’ve never been unfaithful to anyone in my life’.
The court heard £218,000 had been paid into Miss Garikayi’s account after Mr Penfold sold two investment properties.
Insisting the money was a gift, she said that, throughout the relationship, ‘if I wanted something, I would get it’.
‘As far as the discussion I had with Wisdom, they were gifts to me,’ she told the judge.
‘We were in love, the relationship was strong at that point. So there was no need for me to question or query.’
Her solicitor, Chike Ezike, added: ‘The nature of the relationship was one where Mr Penfold bestowed and showered Miss Garikayi with lavish gifts.’
Treating her as a ‘kept woman’, he gave her a Porsche, a BMW and a Mercedes and the £100,000 bracelet, the court was told.
And they enjoyed high-end holidays together to Paris, Spain, Indonesia and Dubai, he added.
Mr Ezike claimed that Mr Penfold also ‘regularly gave her large sums of money’ with no expectation that she would ever pay him back.
But, denying that he had been so generous, Mr Penfold said: ‘I think if I gave £100,000 for a bracelet I would quite remember it.
‘I think it would be welded in my brain for the rest of my life.’
