The woman accused of trying to kill her husband during a bondage sex

session was too clever to commit such an "unprofessional" crime, a court heard.

Joanna Greenberg, defending, said Dena Thompson, 40, was a convicted fraudster who would never have attempted such a clumsy murder.

If the defendant had wanted to kill Richard Thompson, 42, she would have used her powers of manipulation and found a way which would not have implicated her.

Miss Greenberg told Lewes Crown Court: "The Crown say this was something she planned, but it wasn't.

"The evidence of her fraud was all around them and also evidence of her sexual session. It would never have worked and nobody, not even an unintelligent person, would have thought that it would.

"Mrs Thompson was not an unintelligent person."

Dena Thompson denies attacking her husband with a baseball bat and knife as he lay bound with masking tape on the floor of their home in Rustington, near Littlehampton.

The prosecution alleges that Thompson tried to kill her husband because she was scared to tell him she had lied about being wealthy and because she had stolen his money.

Miss Greenberg told the court that Mr Thompson invented the murder attempt to pay back his wife for stealing his cash.

All the independent evidence pointed to the truth of Mrs Thompson's claim that she only hit out at her husband in self-defence.

Her client was a cold-hearted fraud, but was not violent. Mr Thompson exploded when the truth came out about the money, because his involvement was motivated by greed, not love.

Miss Greenberg said: "When Dena Thompson met her husband she was grossly overweight, jobless and virtually penniless with a child to keep.

"Do you think he would have shown the slightest interest in her if he knew the truth?

"He saw Mrs Thompson as a golden goose, even before he was told of the lottery win. He thought she had capital and was prepared to spend it on him.

"Dena Thompson was to a very great extent been the author of her own misfortune.

"She set about a course of conceit which would eventually bring about an explosion from Mr Thompson. She played with fire and she got burned."

The trial continues.