Court of Appeal Overturns Pre-nup After £48 Million Non-disclosure
In a stunning victory for a former husband, the Court of Appeal has overturned a pre-nuptial agreement, finding that a wife’s deliberate failure to disclose over £47 million in assets vitiated the deal.
The case, Entwistle v Helliwell, centred on a short, childless marriage that ended after roughly three years. The couple had signed a “drop hands” pre-nuptial agreement, which stipulated that in the event of a divorce, each party would keep their own separate property and split any jointly owned assets. The husband, Simon Graham Entwistle, had previously been awarded a £400,000 lump sum to meet his needs by a High Court judge who upheld the agreement.
Court of Appeal Success
However, the Court of Appeal allowed the husband’s appeal. The court found that the wife, Jenny Helliwell, had intentionally misrepresented her financial position by disclosing only about £18.2 million of her assets while deliberately omitting an additional £47.8 million. The omitted assets included:
• Business interests and shares worth over £38 million.
• Two plots of land in Jumeriah Beach valued at £8 million.
• A 50% interest in her mother’s Wimbledon property.
Hidden Assets Exposed
The wife’s explanation was that the assets were placed in her name by her father for inheritance planning and that she considered them to be “in reality” his. However, the court found that she had made a “conscious decision” not to disclose them.
The Court of Appeal ruled that the trial judge had erred in law by not finding that this “deliberate non-disclosure” was a vitiating factor. As a result, the pre-nuptial agreement has been set aside, and the case will now be sent back to the High Court for a complete reconsideration of the husband’s financial needs.
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