Cabbie's murder trial hears of £70k debts and forgery at Chelmsford firm Ali's TaxisThe estranged wife of the taxi boss who allegedly murdered her new boyfriend today admitted buying a car with their firm's credit card.
Jane Rezaie, 57, was giving evidence in the trial where Nasser Rezaie is accused of running over Allan Frampton at least six times in May this year.
Defence barrister Patrick Upward QC, in re-examining the prosecution witness, focused on the Rezaies' struggle to fund and run their Ali's Taxis business.
Jane was first forced to reveal that the pair briefly separated in 1999, leaving all three children with Rezaie, but that they rekindled the marriage soon after.
She later said the pair got back together partly because: "He told me I would never see the children. My daughter was 13 and I was worried she would be taken back to Iran."
He went on to scrutinise her running of Ali's Taxis when Rezaie was away in Iran.
The court heard Jane used the company credit card to pay bills, that the card racked up debts of over £70,000 and how she apparently forged Rezaie's signature in order to sell off some taxis.
"I didn't use any of the money for myself apart from I bought my VW Golf which was £1,500 and that's the only money I took for myself," said Jane, who told the court Rezaie took up to £400,000 from Ali's Taxis to fund his property developing side project in Iran.
Jane also insisted Rezaie had fallen out of love with her in 1990, despite his protestations, and added: "Someone who loves you doesn't miss special occasions, doesn't fail to come back from Iran for three Christmases, doesn't buy a present for my birthday and instead gives the money to my daughter for the presents.
"I can't agree, (that he loves me), I'm sorry."
Mr Upward also suggested Rezaie's punch on Jane was "in the struggle for the phone".
But Jane said Rezaie had already put the phone back in his pocket before striking her.
Mr Upward also started laying the foundations for a possible self-defence argument, when he suggested Mr Frampton, when he confronted Rezaie on May 9, 2015, was more "angry" than upset.
He also asked Jane why he would take a club out of the boot to confront Rezaie if he just wanted to tell him to simply "leave them alone".
Clearly provoked, Jane ended up asking Mr Upward back: "Sir, do you know how heavy an S Class Mercedes (200 tonnes) is?"
The court also heard Jane drove to Scotland with Mr Frampton to be with family only days after Rezaie allegedly dislocated her thumb.
Jane said: "I was in so much shock that I wasn't aware it was dislocated. It was not until the Friday (five days later) I realised."
Jane Rezaie finished giving her evidence today. The trial will resume tomorrow when the prosecution calls the eldest Rezaie child, Nader, to the stand.
Rezaie pleads not guilty to the one count of murder.
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'We were kindred spirits': Estranged wife Jane Rezaie speaks at Chelmsford taxi boss' murder trialA mother-of-three and her new boyfriend were like "kindred spirits" before her estranged husband ran him over six times and murdered him, a court heard.
Jane Rezaie, 57, took to the stand today as the first witness in the Chelmsford Crown Court murder trial surrounding taxi boss Nasser Rezaie, 63 and victim Allan Frampton, 60.
She told how she had been unhappily married to Rezaie since 1990 and had thought about killing herself.
She also described the dramatic day Rezaie discovered she and divorcee Mr Frampton were having an affair, before emptying her wardrobe, stealing her mobile phone and punching her.
"It just came out of the blue," said Jane.
"He was shouting very loudly. I said 'don't do this, can't we just talk about this?' He said 'no, I don't want you anymore'.
"He said that there was something wrong with me because I didn't want to sleep with him and that I must be ill and should have gone to the doctor.
"I was scared, I felt at the time it would escalate."
Rezaie, the owner of Chelmsford firm Ali's Taxis, is accused of murdering grandfather and father-of-two Allan Frampton with his silver S Class Mercedes estate at about 8.40pm on Saturday, May 9.
Prosecutor Peter Gair opened the case against Rezaie on Wednesday last week describing how the fateful day was a culmination of jealous rage.
Iran
Jane, who the prosecution today called to the stand, told the court how she met Rezaie in Iran after her own family moved there at age 13 due to her father's work for American Telecommunications.
The couple married, moved to Oxford in August 1978 as the Iranian revolution intensified, and moved to Chelmsford in March 1981.
The court heard how Rezaie's Hackney Carriage firm Ali's Taxis, a nod to the nickname so many British passengers gave him, grew rapidly after 1995 and had as many as 19 vehicles by 2001.
Jane became the firm's secretary, organising shifts, checking oil levels, advertising, washing cars, liaising with mechanics over repairs and driving on weekends.
But Jane said the marriage had "not been good" since 1990, adding: "I had thought about killing myself many times because I was so unhappy."
She added: "But I had three children who I wanted to make sure were okay and were out into the world."
She said that things "changed in her mind" however in the middle of July 2012.
Jane said: "My son Nader got married on July 14, and we had a very, very, difficult week in the build up to the wedding.
"Two days before the wedding I decided I can't do this anymore. My brother came over from Northern Ireland and my sister from Scotland and I was really happy to have all my family there.
"You want everything to be perfect, the way you should have it, but it was just the most horrible week.
"He (Rezaie) had no interest in what was going on. I remember I just sat down on the floor of the kitchen and just thought about how someone could be so indifferent about such a special wedding, I just couldn't get my head around it."
The court heard Jane started the affair in August 2012 with Mr Frampton, a mechanic for Ali's Taxis, and continued to in 2013 when Rezaie apparently spent 33 weeks in Iran over the course of "six or seven visits".
Affair
"We got on really well from the beginning," she said.
"I suppose it was a gradual build-up of finding someone you have so much in common with and have normal conversations with.
"I just realised that we were getting closer and closer and in my heart I realised this was the person I wanted to be with.
"He understood where I was coming from and I understood where he was coming from. We realised we had similar backgrounds and were brought up in a similar way so had so much in common and I think it was that common background that brought us together.
"I suppose I just switched into being with Allan, at weekends we would go out, do social things, go to castles, museums and go for drives.
"I was happy, relaxed, calm, just completely a different person. Content."
Jane said Rezaie came back from work on Sunday, June 8, 2014, to their home in Petersfield, which they bought in 2004, and started throwing out her clothes from the wardrobe.
"They all got thrown down the stairs," she said. "And he kept on going on about wanting my phone.
"I didn't want him to have my phone. It was my property, and anyway, he didn't want me there so I was picking up my stuff to leave."
The court heard Rezaie allegedly pushed her against the front door and dislocated her thumb as he snatched her mobile phone.
Their eldest child Nader, 34, apparently later arrived to play "mediator" between the pair, and told them: "You have to sort this out, the marriage was over a long time ago".
Rezaie apparently became upset and insisted he was still in love with Jane.
Police were eventually called to resolve the dispute, and recover her mobile phone – which Rezaie allegedly said he had "thrown into the river" – before paramedics actually took Rezaie to hospital after he appeared to suffer a "fit" on the floor.
"He was lashing about so much that police officers had to handcuff him," she said.
The court heard Rezaie returned to the house at 6.30am on Monday, June 9, and after digging out the mobile phone which he'd hidden in the car, demanded she call Mr Frampton.
"I was really, really scared, and I thought I have to get dressed in case I need to leave quickly," she said.
"I said 'you know about me and Allan, you don't need to look at my phone' but he went on and on for such a long time, I said 'fine have the phone'."
Rezaie found a brief voicemail from Mr Frampton, in which he told Jane he loved her.
She added: "He got really angry at that and decided that he would call Allan from my phone and I would speak to him. He threw the phone into my face but I just pursed my lips."
Jane started sobbing in front of jurors as she described Rezaie punching her.
"He flung his arm back and the full force hit me under the mouth on the chin," she said.
"I screamed and I cried and he just said 'sorry' and how he shouldn't have done that, how he promised Nader 'I would not hit you'.
Jurors were played a voicemail which recorded precisely this dialogue, as Rezaie did not hang up the phone after ringing Mr Frampton.
The jury also heard a conversation between the Rezaies on Friday, June 20, 2014, which Jane secretly recorded on her phone, when the two met at the Sainsbury's café in Springfield.
Rezaie is recorded asking for Mr Frampton's address in Hatfield Peverel, telling her "you are still my wife" and Jane can be heard saying "killing is wrong".
In other voicemails to Jane's phone, Rezaie appears to speak in his native Farsi before saying "you aint seen nothing yet" and saying: "Don't walk too close to him when you walk together".
The court also heard how Rezaie fitting a GPS tracking device to Jane's black VW Golf and how she and Mr Frampton, who she moved in with in late June 2014, would spot Rezaie's silver Mercedes stalking them.
Dramatic
Jane also told jurors she and Mr Frampton were visiting Nader and his wife's home in Osea Way, in Springfield, which is where the Rezaie family lived until 2004, to help fix a fence on May 9, 2015.
At about 8.30pm, as Jane, Nader and Mr Frampton stood outside the front door, they spotted Rezaie's silver Mercedes about 50 metres up the road in the Springfield cul-de-sac.
"Allan got in the car (the VW Golf), went to the boot, slammed the boot, and then he went charging off up the road," said Jane.
"I shouted 'get back here now' several times, but all I heard him say was 'I've had enough of this'."
Through sobbing tears, Jane told jurors how, while she stood "terrified" with Nader's wife Victoria outside the house, she heard a "loud bang" from up the road but out of sight.
She apparently saw Rezaie drive off before Nader emerged demanding that Victoria ring for an ambulance while he call police.
Jurors have already watched a resident's CCTV footage which appears to show Rezaie's silver Mercedes drive and reverse over Mr Frampton at least six times.
In defence barrister Patrick Upward QC's re-examination, he focused on how Rezaie and Jane had struggled to fund and run the Ali' Taxis business.
Jane Rezaie finished giving her evidence today. The trial will resume tomorrow when the prosecution calls the eldest Rezaie child, Nader, to the stand.
Rezaie pleaded not guilty to the one count of murder.
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