Court orders ‘disgraceful’ husband to pay divorce settlement

A court has ordered a husband who lied about his finances to pay in full the divorce settlement awarded to his former wife.

The court heard that, during the initial divorce proceedings, the husband was ordered to pay the wife £80,000 by 5 February 2014. However, he then claimed that the wife had agreed to accept a lower sum of £40,000, which he paid to her in December 2013. The wife denied this.

The husband claimed that he had borrowed the £40,000 from his brother and had taken photos of himself handing over the money, but had lost his phone. He also maintained that he had a witness and social media messages to prove that his wife had received the money.

The court heard that the husband had inherited a house from his parents. On 22 May 2014, he breached a court order by selling the property. On the same day, the sum of £281,295 was paid into the brother’s bank account.

The brother then transferred £130,000 to the husband, who claimed he spent it all, mainly on gambling.

Following further legal action by the wife, a freezing order was imposed on the brother’s bank account, which still held £110,000 from the sale of the house. The husband claimed that he had given the money to his brother in repayment of a debt.

The court held that the husband and the brother had behaved disgracefully and their evidence was completely false. Not only was it implausible in the extreme, it was not backed up by any documentary evidence or credible witness statements.

The court made a final third party debt order against the bank in respect of £108,854 held in the brother’s account. That was made up of the lump sum of £80,000, statutory interest of £8,454, and legal costs.

Please contact Kirsty Bowers or Lorna Barry if you would like more information about the issues raised in this article or any aspect of family law.