Judges rule divorcing wives can no longer turn detective on spouse’s finances

DIY detective work by divorcing couples to expose a spouse’s hidden assets was declared unlawful in a landmark ruling, ending decades of traditional tactics in marriage disputes.

Litigants will no longer be able secretly to seize papers or documents that they find lying around or access e-mails after the Court of Appeal held that this could breach a person’s rights of confidence and might also be a crime.

Divorce lawyers immediately condemned the ruling, saying it would turn back the clock decades, reversing the principle that wives are entitled to an equal share when a marriage breaks up.

It would also fuel the costs and acrimony of divorce proceedings because spouses would be obliged to resort to expensive legal proceedings to obtain orders that would force partners to disclose their assets.

The ruling came in a divorce battle between Vivian Imerman, 53, the former owner of Del Monte Foods, and his wife Lisa Tchenguiz, 43.

The wife had won the right to use 20,000 documents removed from Mr Imerman’s computer

But the Court of Appeal disagreed and ordered the return of the material.

If the wife was allowed to keep the documents, it “would give her access to material which was confidential to Mr Imerman and had been unlawfully taken from him’.

The judges said that there was “no real doubt” that Mr Imerman’s rights of confidence had been breached and ordered that seven files of documents and all copies being held by Ms Tchenguiz’s solicitors be handed over to Mr Imerman’s solicitors.

Mr Imerman was also entitled to an order restraining Ms Tchenguiz or her lawyers, for the time being, “from using any of the information they have obtained through reading the seven files”, the appeal judges said.

Leading London divorce lawyer Rodney Hylton-Potts said: “How can there be protection of confidentiality, over those very documents that the duty of disclosure requires to be revealed on divorce? ‘

The wife is prohibited from saying what her husband claims he is worth, compared with what is in the public domain.

Rodney Hylton-Potts said it was a “ground-breaking” decision that would revolutionise the disclosure of documents in family cases.’

If you want advice on a matrimonial money battle, or disclosure of documents, contact the experts – For more information or a free legal opinion telephone 020-7381-8111 (24 hour service) or email [email protected].