A WOMAN discovered her husband was already married after she hired a private detective to snoop into his past.

Wendy Lee became suspicious that her husband David Jones was already wed to someone else following her own ceremony on September 16 last year.

To relieve her concerns, she hired a detective who soon found that Mr Jones had been married - for 13 years!

Following the revelation, Ms Lee called Essex Police who launched their own investigation into the 48-year-old.

He was soon arrested on suspicion of bigamy.

During a police interview, he admitted the offence and accepted that he should have divorced his first wife before getting married again.

Mr Jones, of Cambridge Road, Southend, appeared before magistrates in Southend after the court issued a warrant for his arrest because he had failed to turn up at a previous hearing.

He admitted the charge of "entering a form of marriage during the life of your wife".

A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service told the Echo: "Jones married his first wife in 2002 and their relationship broke down.

"In 2013, he began a relationship with another woman whom he married in September 2015 and this other woman believed he was divorced.

"This new wife became suspicious and found out that he was still married after she hired someone to make enquiries.

"We know that the relationship with the first wife deteriorated but it's not clear if he was carrying out a relationship with both women at the same time.

"He has accepted that he just didn't go through the correct process and that he was going to marry the new wife without divorcing the old one."

Magistrates handed him a four-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months and also ordered him to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work.

He was also ordered to pay an £80 victim surcharge and pay £85 to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Bigamy - the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another - is illegal in the UK.

The penalty for committing bigamy is a prison term up to seven years, a fine or both.

According to the latest Home Office statistics, there were 31 reports of bigamy from 2011/2012 and 44 reports in 2010/2011.

Under UK law, a second marriage when one partner is already married is considered void.