Nat Fraser said 'If I can't have her nobody will' before wife disappeared

Businessman Nat Fraser told a friend "If I can't have her, nobody will" days before his wife disappeared, a court has heard.

Nat Fraser denies attacking wife Arlene and killing her at their Elgin home in 1998.

The trial at the High Court in Edinburgh heard evidence on Thursday from local farmer Hector Dick, a friend of Fraser's.

Fraser, 53, has lodged an alibi claiming he was working when his estranged wife disappeared. He claims that if his wife was murdered, Mr Dick, of Mosstowie, was responsible.

Mr Dick told the court that Fraser had an "ill will" towards his wife and spoke of 10,000 people a year who "go missing and never get found".

He also claimed that there could be no prosecution if people disappeared and no body was found, jurors heard.

Mr Dick told the court that Fraser had spoken with him about the possible cost of a divorce from his wife, estimating it at around £86,000.

The farmer said Fraser was trying to "limit the damage" and offered to sell him his £10,000 whisky collection for around £1-2000, on the condition he could buy it back later.

He also claimed Fraser was thinking of other schemes and "trying to get something past" his wife.

The farmer met Fraser when he sold potatoes to him, and the pair became friends, the court heard. Fraser was best man when Mr Dick married wife Irene in 1996.

When Fraser's car was damaged by fire, Mr Dick suggested that his wife may need a car for her and the children, but Fraser replied: "No, the b*tch can walk", the court heard.

He said that Fraser had become "hard-headed" towards his separation from Mrs Fraser, determined that nobody else would be involved in raising his children.

Breast implants

Earlier in the day, the trial heard that Mrs Fraser had a secret breast enlargement without telling her husband.

The mother-of-two underwent the surgical procedure in 1994, four years before she disappeared, the High Court in Edinburgh heard on Thursday.

Her best friend, Michelle Scott, said she did not think Mrs Fraser's husband, Nat, had paid for the operation.

Fraser is on trial accused of murdering his wife between April 28 and May 7, 1998. The alleged victim's body has never been recovered.

Ms Scott told the court that Fraser liked to cook and provided food for the house and paid the bills. The trial has heard that his wife was given a £100-per-week allowance which went on clothes for her and children Jamie, ten, and Natalie, five.

The witness said that Mrs Fraser believed her husband had stashed money in the house and had gone into different rooms tapping the walls to locate it during a girlie night.

When the family's home on Smith Street, Elgin, was searched after Mrs Fraser disappeared, bottles of vodka were found in the bottom of the wardrobe.

Ms Scott said they matched the bottles of "bootleg booze" she sometimes bought from her best friend, which she believed came from local farmer Hector Dick, a friend of Fraser.

Fraser, 53, denies attacking his wife at their home, or elsewhere in Scotland, and strangling her or murdering her "by other means unknown".

The indictment against Fraser says he knew Arlene had seen a solicitor about divorcing him and getting a cash pay-off.

Fraser has lodged papers in court claiming that the day his wife disappeared he left the address in Burnside Road, Lhanbryde, where he was staying at about 7.30am and spent the day making van deliveries to hotels, restaurants and shops - pausing to make a phone call just after 9am.

IN DETAIL

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