They met on the dance floor. He thought it was love. She thought it was work. So when Marie Lacombe turned down Bruce Dusting's surprise marriage proposal, he slapped her with a huge bill.

Dusting, 65, was one of 42-year-old Lacombe's dance students in Melbourne, Australia. He said she led him on to extract money from him for Zumba classes, shopping sprees and even cosmetic surgery.

After she turned down his hand in marriage he handed her an itemised bill for A$200,000 (NZ$225,166), saying his payments had been loans.

The bill listed expenditure from dental appointments, Tupperware, and her children's birthday parties.

"She will not get away with it," he said.

Lacombe said that despite one loan of A$25,000 the rest had been given to her out of kindness.

She said much of the money he had asked her to return paid for unsolicited gifts, and his demands were his way of taking revenge for her rejection.

"At the end of the day things took a turn for the worse when I said no to getting married to him," she said.

Dusting said he was deeply hurt by the situation and would never dance again because of it.