Hi there,
I have an FDR very soon, but have been divorced for a few years. The final order from the time was so weak that it did not adequately make provisions for my and my children's future and has given my ex-husband the opportunity to reduce maintenance twice because he's in the position of power.
He is a high earner and in the top 1% but towards the end of the marriage denied me access to funds, built debt, forged my signature of mortgage advances, misappropriated hundreds of thousands on his mistress and other vices. He walked out of the
FMH and left me with all the liabilities. I was a stay-at-home mum having given up a very lucrative career. He did not pay me any maintenance for almost two years and stopped working at the start of legal proceedings and again at the end whilst there were numerous black holes in our finances, i.e. the amounts on his P60 were not the amounts in the joint account. He also sold stocks, shares and premium bonds without my knowledge.
Fast forward to the first hearing a couple of months ago, the judge indicated that I would be likely to lose if I continued with my claims for half of what he stole, misappropriated etc and I would have to pay his costs - so much for the justice system! I therefore withdrew these claims and now seek a maintenance figure that I think he should be paying as well as the backdated reductions.
In our financial exhanges, he as expected, makes money disappear and although married now (to the mistress), does not reflect her salary and claims 100% of all household expenditure, reports colossal travel costs when works from home and allegedly also has a £10k debt to his poor pensioner mother which he repays yet has savings and kept a bonus aside for buying a property. It all reads a bit like an Enid Blyton story.
Most importantly, however, he and his now wife, have positive results in the land registry searches - him a property in his name and she another in hers. I will highlight, that she is 23 years his junior and had no money. In fact, he made money transfers to her from our accounts when we were still married. He, however, purports in his questionnaire that neither he nor his wife owns the properties and therefore they have no financial interest. Can anyone please explain how this can be when the documents actually have them as proprietors?
Any light would be most welcome as would any guidance on what to expect at this hearing. He will be represented by a barrister but I cannot afford the luxury of defending myself against abuse by being represented as having spent many tens of thousands during the actual divorce, I now have no funds.
Thanking you in advance.
