£12m divorce row could spark tax dodge probe
A BITTER £12million divorce battle between a marine magnate and his ex-wife could lead to them both being probed for a criminal plot to dodge tax, a judge warned.
Paul and Caroline Crowther lived in a £4.5million manor house, the former country home of film mogul J Arthur Rank, and ran a lucrative business chartering ships to oil, gas and wind farm industries.
Keen rider Mrs Crowther, 49, splashed out on a string of horses while the couple also had luxury cars and a stake in a private plane, and sent their children to private schools.
The court fight over an £8.15million shipping fleet owned by offshore companies began after the couple’s 22 years together ended in 2018.
Mrs Crowther is arguing that the five ships were in reality assets of the marriage and ought to be put in the pot when their wealth is split.
But Mr Crowther, 54, insists that the fleet is not beneficially owned by him, his ex-wife or their company and should be ignored in their divorce.
A ban on selling the ships obtained last year was overturned by a High Court judge earlier this year following a challenge by the husband.
But Lord Justice Males, in the Court of Appeal, has reimposed the freezing injunctions to preserve the value of the ships until the fight between the spouses has been decided.
And he warned that if Mrs Crowther proved her case, the warring pair could both be implicated in a “criminal conspiracy... to evade tax properly due” on their earnings.
As well as the disputed ships, the former couple’s assets include their house, near Hartfield, in East Sussex, next to Cotchford Farm, home to the late Rolling Stone Brian Jones and also Winnie The Pooh author AA Milne, and close to the site of the real Poohsticks Bridge in Ashdown Forest and the Hundred Acre Wood.
The row over who owns the ships has roots in a 2012 deal entered into with Gibraltar-based accountant, Steven Knight, that five ships would be transferred from the ownership of their company to that of one of Mr Knight’s offshore businesses.
Over the subsequent years, the couple made money by chartering, then sub-chartering, those ships or their successors.
Mr Crowther insists it was a genuine and straightforward transaction and neither the Crowthers nor their business have any beneficial interest in them now. He denies any wrongdoing or tax evasion.
But Mrs Crowther says the transaction was a “sham” carried out to dodge tax, and claims the ships should be regarded as marital assets.