Aristocrat set to take divorce row to Supreme Court
He wants to stop split being settled in England
A SCOTS aristocrat fighting to stop his wife taking her millionpound divorce bid to England has been granted permission for the case to be heard in the highest court in the UK.
Charles Alastair Hyde Villiers filed for divorce from his wife Emma in Scotland in 2014.
But the publisher accused her of ‘divorce tourism’ after she pursued a financial settlement south of the Border, where the courts are perceived as being more generous to wives.
In 2016 it was ruled that the High Court in London could oversee the case.
Mr Villiers, who is related to the Duke of Roxburghe and the Duchess of Cornwall, challenged the ruling at the Court of Appeal in May, claiming his wife was ‘trying it on’.
After his appeal was rejected, he went to the Supreme Court in London. His right to appeal has been approved by three judges and a formal announcement is expected later this month.
Mr Villiers, who has been ordered to pay his wife’s £30,000 appeal costs, said yesterday he hopes a ruling in his favour will set a precedent in divorce law.
The 55-year-old wants it to reverse the Appeal Court’s decision on the case, which he said has ‘so badly affected my life for the past six years now, and consumed the time of almost every single judge of the Family Division, and is now requiring the UK Supreme Court to sort out’.
The couple married in Scotland in 1994 and lived for most of their married life in Milton House, an eight-bedroom Georgian mansion in Dunbartonshire.
They separated in 2012 and Mrs Villiers, 58, moved with their daughter Clarissa, 23, to London’s Notting Hill.
Her husband filed for divorce at Dumbarton Sheriff Court in October 2014. Three months later, Mrs Villiers applied to the English courts for financial maintenance, claiming £10,000 a month for her and their daughter.
In 2016, Mrs Justice Parker ruled that the High Court in London could oversee the case because Mrs Villiers was now ‘habitually resident’ in England.
The judge ordered Mr Villiers to pay £5,500 a month to cover interim maintenance, pending finalisation of the divorce, and her legal bills.
Having lost his appeal on that ruling, Mr Villiers has now been granted permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. A date will be set later this month, with a decision expected within the year.
Racehorse owner Mr Villiers was declared bankrupt in 2013. Although he was discharged from bankruptcy the following year, his family seat was repossessed in 2015.
But Mrs Villiers’ lawyers claim her husband is far from penniless, saying he has family money, including a halfshare in a £3.5million trust fund. They say his wealth ‘may be much more’ if a London flat held by a familycontrolled company is taken into consideration.
But Mr Villiers insists he has no direct access to the trust fund and has provided generously for his daughter.
Last night, he said: ‘The Supreme Court is neither an English nor a Scottish court, but a court of the whole United Kingdom, with judges from all four home nations.
‘My case will now, for the first time, have the involvement of senior Scottish judges sitting alongside English justices. From my perspective, that is a huge step forward.’
‘A huge step forward’