Wife blockades £10m sale of ships ahead of divorce battle
A BUSINESSMAN and his wife are embroiled in a divorce battle over a fleet of ships worth £10million.
Paul Anthony Crowther, 54, and his wife Caroline operated a lucrative shipchartering business in Brighton until their relationship broke down in 2018.
Yesterday the couple clashed in London’s Appeal Court, with Mrs Crowther successfully arguing that the collection of vessels owned by offshore companies were in reality marital assets and should be included in the divorce settlement.
However, Mr Crowther insists that the ships are not beneficially owned by him, his ex-wife or their company and are therefore not part of their combined assets.
The court heard that, as well as the disputed ships, the former couple’s assets include several “valuable horses”, “valuable cars” and the multi-million pound manor house that was their former marital home, near Hartfield, in
East Sussex.
In 2012, the couple transferred the ownership of five ships from their company’s fleet to an offshore company owned by Steven Knight, a Gibraltarbased business associate.
Over subsequent years, they made money by chartering, then sub-chartering, the ships and those that replaced them.
Mr Crowther insists that the transfer of the ships to Mr Knight was a genuine transaction, and that neither the Crowthers nor their business, have any beneficial interest in them.
But Mrs Crowther claims the transaction was a “sham” carried out for tax purposes, and claims the ships are worth £10million.
Last year, she obtained a series of freezing injunctions banning Mr Crowther, Mr Knight and his companies from selling or otherwise disposing of the ships.
The freezing orders were overturned in March this year.
Mr Justice Holman concluded that the transfer of the boats had been a genuine “commercial arrangement” rather than an attempt “to defeat the claims of the wife to financial remedy orders”.
However, yesterday the Court of Appeal allowed Mrs Crowther’s appeal and ruled that the injunctions should be reinstated. This means the disputed ships cannot now be sold off and the proceeds moved on before full divorce court proceedings take place.