A FORMER church minister from Chester who allegedly entered into a bigamous mar-riage looked for financially secure, vulnerable women, a court heard yesterday.

Roderick Sangster, 58, is alleged to have married Janet Pollard in July 2004 while still married to a woman called Jill Jackson before leaving them both thousands of pounds in debt, Warwick Crown Court was told.

Sangster did not attend his trial yesterday and his last known address was the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Trinity Street, Chester.

He is also accused of forg-ing Ms Pollard’s signature to obtain a £10,000 loan from Northern Rock.

The jury was told that Ms Jackson, originally from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, was forced to declare herself bankrupt after discovering that Sangster had run up a debt of £30,000, while Ms Pollard was left with a bill for £55,000.

Prosecutor David Jones said: “He looked for vulner-able ladies with some degree of financial stability which gave him the opportunity to get monies from them.”

When the money ran out, he would move on to another woman, Mr Jones said.

Sangster, once an officer in London’s Metropolitan Police and a minister of the Scottish church, married Ms Jackson in Florida on August 6 1996, after legally divorcing his first wife of 25 years, with whom he had four children.

He left Ms Jackson in 2002 with huge debt, forcing her to declare herself bankrupt.

Sangster, described as a “conman”, began divorce pro-ceedings but had a “change of heart”. In 2003, he wrote to Ms Jackson saying she would not get a divorce. The letter was read out by Mr Jones and said: “I would have given you what-ever you wanted, a divorce, cash. Now you get nothing because you have turned down all my offers to help. You don’t get the divorce because you will not be able to reach me.”

The court was shown the couple’s marriage certificate and when asked if she had divorced him, Ms Jackson replied: “No.”

Sangster later found employ-ment at a hotel in Evesham, Worcestershire, and started internet dating where he met Ms Pollard, who was recover-ing from cancer. He moved in with her in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, after telling her he had divorced Ms Jackson.

Ms Jackson described the moment she came face to face with Sangster’s new “wife”.

She said she discovered her estranged husband had marr-ied Janet Pollard in 2004 when the pair met three years later.

Ms Jackson said Ms Pollard contacted her after discover-ing Sangster had left her £55,000 in debt.

Ms Jackson, of Perth, Scot-land, said: “She said she was married to a Rod Sangster and was it the same one? I got out the wedding photographs and showed her. She confirmed it was him and the beach where we got married, she had been there with him.”

Ms Jackson wept in court as she told the jury that “she didn’t realise the extent of the debt” until he left her in 2002.