Dishonest Ex Husbands In Court As Wives Want More Money

Divorce is never an easy option and takes an emotional toll on couples and their families, especially where children are involved. Dividing up the marital spoils can be stressful and never more so than when a wealthy couple head for the divorce courts.

Often, the wife has been in the background as the stay at home partner, taking care of the home, bringing up the children and supporting her bread winning husband in every way she can. While it’s true that some men may struggle with payments to their exes for spousal and child support, where wealthier couples are concerned the ‘game’ is indeed very different.

Two divorcees have taken their cases to the High Court, aiming to get bigger payouts from their ex husbands, who, they claim, were completely dishonest about their true financial assets at the time of the divorce settlements. Alison Sharland and Varsha Gohil are desperately trying to re open hearings into their divorces as both husbands concealed the true extent of their wealth at the time of divorce.

Bhini Phagura, Family Law specialist at leading regional law firm Pictons says “If the original settlements in both of these cases are overruled it may set a new precedent in divorce cases. It seems in both of these cases the lower courts ruled that the two husbands had been dishonest but did not make them pay more than the settlements the wives were given.”

Although Alison Sharland received a £10.3 million settlement from her divorce, she discovered afterwards that her ex’s company was worth an astonishing £620 million. Varsha Gohil, a mum of three, was given £270,000 and the family car but she now claims that her husband had hidden assets worth £35million.

Bhini comments “Sadly we do see devious accounting in some of our divorce cases and sometimes the details and extent of the deceit are truly shocking. It’s as if the husbands in these two cases have absolutely no respect at all for their partner’s contributions to their wealth, let alone the fact that Mrs Gohil is the mother Mr Gohil’s children.

“While I equally abhor cases where the wives are perniciously out for everything they can get, and more, I do think that the courts should be stronger when husbands display such reprehensible behaviour. Lord Justice Briggs in the Court of Appeal has made it clear that if a party is subsequently found to have concealed assets or been dishonest about their finances, the case should be heard again from scratch.

Additionally, the dishonest party should be liable for the full costs of the additional hearings.
“When we have to try and uncover hidden assets in a divorce case the costs just soar. Divorce may be common but it’s still a highly emotive situation and we encourage both parties to be as amicable and as honest with each other as they possibly can for the sake of everyone involved.”