You may hear about all the different ways that one person tries to reduce or defeat the other’s financial claim in separation or divorce.
While it’s natural to feel protective over your assets, it’s vital that you disclose all of your finances and assets in divorce or you could face hefty fines or even imprisonment by the Court.
We're rated‘Excellent’Recently, a husband was imprisoned for a period of 9 months for doctoring his bank statements to avoid making payments to his wife.
Judge Nicholas Cartwright was of the view that the Defendant had perverted the cause of justice after he lied “at the heart of Justice” on oath and submitted bank statements which he had doctored as evidence.
In this case, the Court initially ordered the husband to pay his ex-wife a sum of £3,500 per month in spousal maintenance.
At the time the initial Financial Order was made, the husband had an affluent job in the oil and gas industry but was made redundant in 2016. As he accepted another job that paid considerably less than his previous job, he issued an application to the Court to vary the maintenance payments. As part of the application, he lodged statements from his HSBC bank account in Dubai.
After conducting a thorough review of all the evidence the husband produced in his application, a page was found on the HSBC Bank account statements that dated transactions to the 31st September. Of course, this date does not exist.
Although the Defendant confirmed under oath that he did not create the documents himself, when he was asked to attend the bank to clarify how the error had been made, he finally admitted that he had created these documents himself. To add to this peculiar situation, the Defendant then admitted to having lied under oath.
It was no surprise that the Judge was far from impressed with the way the Defendant had conducted himself in this case.
If you’re in a marriage or civil partnership, you’re automatically entitled to your former partner’s pension if you decide to divorce. Pensions are treated like any other martial asset in divorce, and so there’s a possibility that any pension funds will be divided between you and your ex, just like your home and any joint savings.
Often, the older you get, the more money you’ll have in your pension pot and when getting a divorce in later life this may be your biggest asset.
In any divorce, the best way to protect your pension is to get a clean break, which means that your partner can’t claim against your pension further down the line.
There was a time where it was unheard of for people to lie under oath, but now this appears to be becoming an increasing trend. The number of cases in which the Courts are dealing with these kinds of ethical issues is somewhat increasing.
You can find out more about the process of discovering hidden assets in divorce here. If you believe your ex-partner is hiding assets or trying to dissipate assets to defeat your financial claim, get in touch with our expert Family Law Solicitors today.
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