Supreme court to consider impact of fraud in AR

IN today''s Guardian:

The former wives of two wealthy men are taking their claims for larger payouts to the supreme court, claiming that their divorce settlements left them short-changed.

Charles Sharland and Bhadresh Gohil are accused of concealing the true value of their assets. Their former spouses are seeking to reopen financial negotiations on the grounds that the courts were provided with fraudulent evidence.

The hearing, before seven justices at the supreme court in Westminster, London, will assess whether non-disclosure entitles a claimant to reinstate a concluded divorce trial.

The applications by Alison Sharland, 48, from Wilmslow, Cheshire, and Varsha Gohil, 50, from north London, both represented by the law firm Irwin Mitchell, have been joined for the justices to examine the impact of fraud on matrimonial disputes.

Sharland had accepted more than £10m in cash and properties from her ex-husband in the settlement but it later emerged that the shares in his company were worth considerably more than previously revealed. One estimate put the firm’s value at $1bn (£656m).

Gohil had accepted £270,000 plus a car in her divorce settlement in 2004. But it later became clear that her husband, who was tried and jailed for fraud and money-laundering sums of up to £37m, had not given the court accurate information about his finances

Ros Bever, a partner in the family and divorce law team at Irwin Mitchell, said: “This is yet another case in which an unfair settlement has been agreed because of one party being dishonest and not sharing all the details of their wealth to the courts.

“Both cases raise serious issues about how the courts should handle cases where information shared with the court and used to agree a divorce settlement is later found to be false or incomplete.”

She added: “Dishonesty in any legal proceedings should not be tolerated. The family court should not be an exception. There are numerous legal arguments to be heard by the supreme court but we hope that ultimately justice will be done and will be seen to be done.”

The hearing will last three days.


www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jun/08/su...ha-gohil-ex-husbands

It seems to me that it is all to common a problem. Surely it is fraud and should be dealt with as such. I assume that if a few cases were dealt with adequately then ex`s on both sides would take it more seriously. My stbx is just to clever for me to ever feel like i will get a fare result. Fingers crossed it will be taken more seriously if this is dealt with publicly.