A Supreme Court ruling yesterday will make it harder in future for wealthy people to deliberately hide assets in businesses and corporate structures to protect them in the event of a divorce.

A seven-strong Supreme Court has unanimously allowed an appeal by an oil tycoon’s former wife and ordered him to hand over assets held by his companies. The case’s latest round unanimously overturned the Appeal Court decision and ruled in favour of Mrs Prest.

The Judges of the Supreme Court concluded that properties held by Mr Prest’s companies were properties to which he was “entitled” and therefore can be considered part of his personal wealth when assessing how much the other spouse should receive as a divorce settlement.

Rebekah Gershuny, family solicitor at Collins Solicitors, commented: “This is an important case for divorcing couples where one of the parties is trying to hide their assets behind a corporate veil in order to cheat their partner from a fair share of the marital assets.”

For further details, please contact:

Rebekah Gershuny, Collins Solicitors, T) 01923 223 324, rgershuny@collinslaw.co.uk