Divorce Lies May Lead to Perjury Charge
Giving false evidence to any court can have serious consequences, as an errant ex-husband may be about to discover.
Ex-spouses are often reluctant to pay settlements awarded to their former partner and, in one extreme case, a husband who claimed to have paid £40,000 to his wife in bundles of £50 notes was condemned as a ‘disgraceful liar’ by a family judge.
Following divorce proceedings, the husband had been ordered to pay his wife a lump sum of £80,000. He claimed that she had agreed to accept only half of what he owed her so that her receipt of benefits would not be disturbed. He also claimed that a house he had sold really belonged to his brother. However, the judge rejected the husband’s evidence on these matters, commenting that it was ‘certainly false’.
The husband was also ordered to pay the wife’s legal costs on a punitive basis. The judge directed that papers in the case be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions for consideration as to whether the husband and his brother should be prosecuted for perjury.
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I think it is shocking that men do these types of things at the end of what was probably a long and happy marriage.
I am lucky in that I was an equal ‘bread winner’ in my former household as both myself and my ex-husband worked full-time and had similar incomes to one another. So when my marriage did breakdown, I was not left trying to fight for what I was owed from my ex-husband. So I know I am more the exception than the rule in a lot of these cases.
For a lot of these poor women, society almost seems to expect that they should place careers on-hold, put family first and for the man in the relationship to be the main ‘bread winner’. The problems arise I have found when the marriage breaks down, the men almost turn into squirrels, hiding away their money in secret bank accounts in an attempt to ensure they give away as little as possible to their soon to be ex-wives.
Sorry to go on, a quick story; A friend of mine actually found herself in a very similar situation when she divorced about 10 years ago. He did leave her the marital home for her and the young children at the time but not much else (she had to take on the last 10 years of the mortgage might I add).
We then found out about 3 years later that even though he claimed to have very little money coming out of the divorce, that the house he was living in with his new partner was not rented but he had actually purchased it with a very large deposit which he claims came from his new partner who at the time I believe according to my friend was working part-time in a supermarket.
I guess we will never know for sure, but I am sure it happens a lot more than people realise and it is unjust that men appear to think because they ‘earned’ it going to work, it is theirs! They seem to forget their spouses chose to work ‘unpaid’ raising the children, and so on.