THE HUSBAND of the woman who admitted stealing almost £2m from Dunbar Bank has walked free from court after being acquitted of handling her ill-gotten gains.

A jury at Swindon Crown Court took less than four hours to find Paul Rowlands not guilty of three counts of handling stolen cash of just under £35,500 and six counts of dishonestly receiving wrongful credit amounting to £17,000.

Heavily-built Rowlands, 45, of Blunsdon, stood impassively as the foreman of the jury returned the not guilty verdicts. As Judge Tom Longbotham released him from the dock he said "thank you" to the five men and seven women on the panel.

Outside court his solicitor, Alison Fielden, said: "Mr Rowlands is taking a few days to gather his thoughts. He is obviously very pleased the jury understood the issues."

Detective Sergeant Wayne Bagnall, the police officer-in-charge of the case, revealed after the case that £1m was still missing from the money stolen by Mrs Rowlands.

DS Bagnall, who mounted a comprehensive dossier of evidence concerning the Rowlands case, added: "We have leads and there will be developments."

Last month Beryl Rowlands, 58, was jailed for four- and- a- half years after pleading guilty to the theft of £1.775m over a 10 year period, more than £1.5m of which was in cash.

The greying, bespectacled woman would carry five figure sums on the train home from Dunbar Bank in London, where she worked as a manager, before stashing it in her knicker drawer, the jury heard.

Mr Rowlands admitted splashing out on prestige cars and motorbikes as well as camera equipment and holidays.

But the former Royal Engineer, who put in "exemplary" military service including tours in Germany, Northern Ireland and Canada, denied that he knew he was using stolen money.

He told the jury: "My wife brought the money home. I did not need to think where it came from. I did not think my wife was a bank robber, a bank thief."