A driving instructor whose Pakistani wife claimed he used to check her weight every Sunday had his conviction for controlling behaviour overturned after his lawyer accused her of a “marriage of convenience” to get a UK visa.

Farzana Kauser, 20 years her husband’s junior, had claimed there was a “weight graph” and she felt “really degraded and low.” She alleged Tanveer Ghani, 58, of Bryn Trewan, Caergeiliog in Anglesey, also measured her with a tape.

He had been jailed for 18 weeks last May after a district judge at Llandudno convicted him of controlling behaviour which he denied.

Giving evidence in Urdu via a video link and interpreter during an appeal hearing at Mold crown court, Miss Kauser said : "Every Sunday morning he used to check my weight. He used to say I must lose one kilo.”

The court heard the first time they met was in September 2015 at their wedding but she had seen him during video calls.

In July last year the bride arrived at Manchester airport. But Miss Kauser said : "He had a problem with me being fat. He wanted me to exercise every day for one hour and told me to walk for an hour-and-a-half.” If she refused to do so, she claimed Mr Ghani shouted at her.

“He gave me a list of exercises and told me I had to change the exercises every day.” She said Mr Ghani gave her a watch which recorded her steps.

She also insisted :”In a whole day I was allowed half a naan bread with a little curry, sometimes a couple of spoons of yoghurt.”

Miss Kauser maintained : "I used to get food out of bins.”

She told the court :”He used to come home unannounced just to check I wasn’t eating anything.” She felt “mentally stressed.”

The wife denied a claim by barrister Ember-Jade Wong, for Mr Ghani, that she had married to get an immigration visa and the allegations were part of a plan. But Miss Kauser didn’t answer a suggestion that she had since applied to stay indefinitely in Britain.

Miss Kauser alleged Mr Ghani wasn’t religious and banned her from reading the Koran in front of him. She maintained he also told her to wear “Westernised” clothes.

But at the end of the prosecution case, Miss Wong applied successfully for the conviction to be overturned because it wasn’t safe. She said Miss Kauser had been “evasive and robust.” The prosecution had failed to meet the legal test to find him guilty. Counsel said although Miss Kauser claimed she didn’t want to exercise, there was an image of her at a gym in Pakistan.

Allowing the appeal, crown court Judge Niclas Parry, sitting with magistrates, said Miss Kauser had been a “confident, extremely assertive and forceful individual.” It couldn’t be shown Mr Ghani knew or ought to have known his alleged behaviour would have a serious effect.

He said after being cleared :”The last twelve months has been a nightmare. I have to start over again. I lost everything.”

At the previous hearing Mr Ghani told the court he was born in Lahore, came to this country as a teenager and became a driving instructor in 1993. After his partner of 30 years, Iona Roberts, left him his sister-in-law persuaded him to re-marry. "She said 'this girl is very honest, loyal and guaranteed spot-on," he recalled. "I suddenly got calls from Farzana". In September 2015 they were married in Pakistan.

He added : "This was a love marriage so far as I was concerned. I never put any restriction on her food, never shouted, called her names or raised my voice. We got on great and she could go out any time and leave the house. I had no idea whether she monitored her weight and never put her on scales or measured her waist.

"She would peck me on the cheek when I came through the door from work.

"As far as I was concerned everything was working out. But when she put too much spice in the food I suggested she should stay with my sister and reduce her spice. She would send me text messages rather than say anything to my face."

He went on : "She showed no signs of being unhappy.”