UK divorce settlements are being challenged over disclosure failure. Two such cases will be heard at Britain's highest court. This highlights the growing trend of women appealing against their divorce settlements on the basis that their former husbands had supposedly failed to disclose all relevant financial information at the time.
One such case is of Varsha Gohil. For her divorce settlement, she was given a Peugeot car and £270,000 lump sum from her ex-husband, solicitor Bhadresh Gohil, who had claimed he had moderate capital.
Varsha Gohil had attempted to appeal against this settlement as Bhadresh Gohil had not given the accurate information about his finance. However, he was later sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, as he admitted charges including money-laundering, valued at more than $20 million. This consequently held up her case as the police were investigating into the charges of Mr. Gohil. The court were informed that Mr. Gohil helped millionaire Nigerian politician, James Ibori steal around £50million from the oil-rich state he administered.
The court had later declined to reopen her case, however, Lord Justice McFarlane had stated in her defence, “his [Bhadresh Gohil] convictions demonstrates, certainly from 2005, Mr Gohil was an out and out rogue involved in financial criminality on an eye-watering scale.”
On the other hand, Lord Justice McFarlane did mention that eight years later, it was not possible for the court to find there had been non-disclosure at the time.
Varsha Gohil has been allowed to appeal against the decision to the Supreme Court.
