on Concorde and showered her with gifts of expensive jewellery and clothes.

The couple stayed in a $300-a-night hotel in the gambling resort of Monte Carlo before tying the knot in Toronto, the barrister's trial heard yesterday.

Madeiros, 64, admitted the 1989 trip was financed from an account belonging to Boyd Davis, whose affairs he was managing at the time.

But he denied stealing the money, saying it was part of a cash gift from Davis in return for his work.

Madeiros is charged with stealing $506,000 from Davis while overseeing deals involving Sleepy Hollow estate in Hamilton Parish, which Davis inherited.

Davis denies giving Madeiros the money and blames him for the dwindling of his estate. Apart from the present trial, he is suing Madeiros.

Yesterday Madeiros took the witness stand, occasionally entertaining the jury with jokes but often dropping his voice to a murmur.

He said he spent more than 10 hours a week over five years working for Davis.

He had a "very close relationship'' with the landowner, who would only discuss his business affairs with him.

Davis made cash gift to Madeiros Davis gave Madeiros power of attorney over his affairs in 1986, but could have cancelled this at any time "by a stroke of his pen''.

He tried to get Davis off drink, he said, visiting him in hospital and taking advice from the Government rehabilitation centre. But Davis developed an "obsession'' with living in Florida, where he could get drunk away from him.

Madeiros said he never gave Davis liquor, and only saw him drunk once.

The gift of $506,000 was made when Davis was sober, he said. It was made after he became concerned at the hours he was working outside normal conveyancing duties.

"At the very beginning I didn't know how serious Mr. Davis' problems were,'' Madeiros said. "I spent a lot of time with him on that situation. But I couldn't very well spend all this time with him for nothing. It became obvious to me that we would have to come to some arrangement about charges.'' Davis offered him the value of four lots of the property and told him he could take out the cash as he needed it, said Madeiros.

In return, Madeiros said, he offered to do Davis' legal work for nothing, for the rest of Davis' life.

Madeiros added he was the only person who consistently cared for Davis, apart from Davis' daughter.

Crown Counsel Ms Sharon Kenny, asked Madeiros why the "gift'' had not been put in writing.

"I suppose it was foolish on my part,'' Madeiros told her.

Madeiros admitted he liked gambling and had gone to Atlantic City about every four months in 1989.

But his only long period off the Island was his "honeymoon'', taken before his marriage in 1989.

He took his fiancee to Monte Carlo, spending $12,000 on first-class airfares, the court heard.

Madeiros also spent $125,000 on clothes and jewellery, said Ms Kenny.

She asked Madeiros if he was still married. "Unfortunately, yes,'' he told her.

"You treated her well,'' she said. Madeiros replied: "A man doesn't like to be the judge of his own actions, but I think so.'' Earlier, Det. Ch. Insp. Vic Richmond told the court cash from Davis' account was used by Madeiros to run up "extremely high'' credit card bills and pay a loan.

Withdrawals got faster towards the end of 1989, he said, eventually being made every two or three days.

Questioned by Mr. Richard Hector, lawyer for Madeiros, Mr. Richmond agreed Madeiros was "extremely co-operative'' with Police.