Bigamist bus driver proposed with ring he claimed to be an heirloom but new bride discovered it was £29.99 from Argos and he was married with eight children
- Kevin Ellis was still married to second wife when he registered his third marriage
- Third wife Julie Budge later found out he had another wife and eight children
- The 58-year-old from Buckie admitted bigamy but has avoided a jail sentence
- Ms Budge said she ‘had married the man of my dreams… but now I hate him’
Kevin Ellis, 58, pictured outside Inverness Crown Court, where he avoided a jail sentence
A bigamist who married his third wife before being divorced from his second has avoided a jail sentence.
Kevin Ellis, 58, from Buckie, Banffshire, was still married to second wife Rosemary when he registered his marriage to Julie Budge.
Miss Budge later discovered he had another wife and eight children, for whom he was paying maintenance.
During an earlier hearing at Inverness Sheriff Court, Ellis admitted that on December 24, 2018, he ‘did bigamously marry’ Miss Budge. Sentence was deferred for reports.
When Ellis returned to court yesterday, Sheriff Eilidh Macdonald said: ‘This was not an attack on the institution of marriage. It is simply a fraud.
‘You deliberately lied not only to your third wife, but also to the authorities when you were completing the paperwork.’
Ellis, 58, from Buckie, Banffshire, was still married to second wife Rosemary when he registered his marriage to Julie Budge (pictured). Miss Budge later discovered he had another wife and eight children
Defence solicitor Kevin Anderson said his client ‘greatly loved’ Miss Budge and claimed Ellis thought that his second wife ‘had divorced him’.
Ellis, pictured, was ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work and given six months to complete it. He refused to comment as he left the court.
Miss Budge, his former business partner in the Portland Arms Hotel in Lybster, Caithness, was seen sobbing after the hearing and was unable to comment.
Speaking to a local radio station earlier this month, she said: ‘I had married the man of my dreams… now I hate him. If I could erase these years from my life I would. It was a couple of years of my life that were a complete nightmare.’