Mrs De-Laurey had previously worked in car showrooms

Prosecutor Stuart Trimmer said Joyti De-Laurey was jealous of her wealthy employers at investment bank Goldman Sachs and began to lead a double life.

Mrs De-Laurey, of North Cheam, Surrey is accused of taking �4.5m from the personal accounts of her employers.

She denies 21 charges of deception and says the money was a reward for her services and her bosses knew about it.

She is accused of taking about �3.3m from Edward Scott Mead, a managing director at Goldman Sachs and �1.1m from his predecessors, Jennifer Moses and her husband Ron Beller.

The trial has heard she spent hundreds of thousands on designer clothes, property including a sea-front villa in Cyprus, a power boat and diamond Cartier jewellery.

You were buying Cartier jewellery like it was going out of fashion Stuart Trimmer, prosecuting

Most of Mrs De-Laurey's previous jobs had been in customer care roles at car showrooms, the court was told.

Mr Trimmer suggested that her job at Goldman Sachs amounted to a "completely different world".

"I suggest to you that you were jealous of what you saw about you at Goldman Sachs," he told her.

He told the court she had filled in a school registration form in Cyprus, putting her occupation as "banker".

"You wanted to be in the swim of how those people behaved. You wanted to mimic them," he told her.

"When in Cyprus or at home with your friends you took on the role of international banker. You had all the trappings, you had the Cartier jewellery."

Mrs De-Laurey said she had "no reason" to argue with his claim she had spent �383,700 on jewellery.

I had had the opportunity whereby people I worked for let me have money from them Joyti De-Laurey

"From July 2001 onwards you were buying Cartier jewellery like it was going out of fashion," said Mr Trimmer.

Mrs De-Laurey agreed she was surrounded by wealthy people and had an insight into their lifestyles.

But she said: "I didn't want it. That is, I would not have gone out of my way to get it then."

She has argued that Mr Beller and Mr Mead knew about the transfers and they were a reward for her "priceless" services, such as covering up Mr Mead's affair.

"I had had the opportunity whereby people I worked for let me have money from them. How I spent it surely is down to myself," she said.

Mrs De-Laurey's husband Anthony, 50, and her GP mother, Dr Devi Schahhou, 67, of Hampstead, north-west London, have pleaded not guilty to associated money-laundering charges.

Earlier she insisted her husband had not thought there was anything odd about her lavish expenditure, adding he had nothing to do with the household budget.