A “WALTER Mitty character” who poisoned his wife with laxatives has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.

David Smith, 62, a fantasist who claimed he was an ex-SAS hero, made Elizabeth Smith so ill she thought she was dying.

A sheriff in Ayr yesterday said Smith, from Telford, Shropshire, was guilty of a “prolonged and evil course of criminal conduct”.

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Smith had told his wife a string of lies, including that he carried
out the SAS raid on the Iranian Embassy.

He made her so ill she said doctors believed she may have motor neurone disease.

Smith also falsely told his 62-year-old wife he owned a factory that made secret-component parts for the MoD and that his first wife was a professional ballerina who had died while carrying their unborn child.

His stories unravelled after he staged a break-in at their home.

When she first met him, Mrs Smith thought he was an “absolute gentleman”.

She said: “He was just a normal, lovely guy. He was a family man – a wonderful man who came across as so genuine and real.”

“He’s a 100 per cent Walter Mitty character. He has got caught up completely in his web of lies. 

“I want people to be aware that there are people like this out there and they are very, very dangerous men. He has taken away five years of my life. It’s heartbreaking.”

His shattered wife believes he was trying to convince her family she was losing her mind so he could get away with stealing her money.

Smith, who claimed to have cancer after he was exposed as a criminal, made Mrs Smith so ill that her friends and family thought she had a terminal illness.

He slipped the laxatives into food he prepared for beauty therapist Mrs Smith, leaving her so thin and weak she could hardly stand.

The abuse went on throughout their three-year relationship, which began in 2012.

But it was only exposed in August 2015, seven months after the couple married.

The couple wed on Arran in January 2015 but Elizabeth had become so gaunt and unwell, her family thought she was dying. On one occasion, she passed out in the bathroom and woke up covered in diarrhoea and vomit with father-of-three Smith hovering over her in a panic.

Mrs Smith’s suspicions about her husband were raised when the bank notified her that thousands were flowing out of her account at £350 at a time – the maximum that could be taken from a machine.

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The dates appeared to tally with times when Smith was visiting and his web of lies fell apart in August 2015. Mrs Smith acted on her suspicions about her illness and recorded Smith making a full confession to poisoning her.

Smith last month admitted culpably and recklessly administering laxatives between Mar 2012 and July 2015, knowing they would damage his wife’s health so she “repeatedly suffered illness or injury and required medical treatment”.

Jailing him yesterday, Sheriff John Montgomery said Smith’s conduct had caused “physical and mental anguish” to his victim.