Retired engineering inspector and father-of-two 'is a bigamist who wed three women while already married'

A retired engineering inspector is to stand trial accused of triple bigamy.
Alexander Paton is said to have married three women illegally between 2006 and 2012.
The 68-year-old appeared at Kirkcaldy Sherriff Court today where he maintained pleas of not guilty to the charges.

Paton is accused of marring Filipino mortgage funder Perla Montilla (left) in 2006 despite already being married to another woman. He is also accused of marrying Judit Gherghiteanu (right) while still married to Ms Montilla

It is alleged that Paton, from Kirkcaldy bigamously married Filipino mortgage funder, Perla Montilla, 65, at the registrars’s office in Glenrothes, Fife, on October 14, 2006, despite already being married to another woman, Dorothy Campbell, and cohabited with Ms Montilla as her husband.
The second charge alleges that less than a year later on June 20, 2007, at the same registry office he married Romanian engineer Judit Gherghiteanu, 67, while still married to Ms Montilla.
He is also accused of bigamously marrying Margaret Nicol, 66, from Fife, at Prospecthill Christian Fellowship church, in Greenock, Renfrewshire, on July 14, 2012, again while still married to Ms Montilla.

Sheriff Kevin Veal continued the case for trial on December 12, with a further preliminary hearing on November 29.
He told Paton: 'I think your attendance can be excused on that date, unless a plea is agreed beforehand.'
Bigamy is generally defined as the crime of marrying a person while already legally married.

In Scotland, penalties range from fines to substantial prison sentences.
A bigamist is seen as perpetrating fraud against the state, causing a disruption in record keeping and, in some cases, upsetting the practice of inheritance and estate laws.
If the second spouse is unaware of a still-valid prior marriage, the bigamist may also be seen as causing him or her to enter into a legal agreement under false pretences, which may be another form of fraud.

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