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Family Court rules absentee father is “not really rich” on £100,000 salary (18 March 2014)

Date: 18/03/2014
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Family Court rules absentee father is “not really rich” on £100,000 salary

A judge has ruled that a banker with an £100,000 salary is “not really rich” in a family court case involving an absentee father.

The mother of the man’s child claimed £24,000 a year in child support plus a one-off payment of £180,000. However, at a hearing of the Family Division of the Appeal Court this was cut to under £45,000 and £1,000 per month, after the judge ruled the man had insufficient funds to meet the demands of the mother of his child.

The Daily Mail reports that the child was born after a brief office “liaison” – and the father cut all ties with the mother and his child for the first seven years of her life, leaving his former lover to bring up their daughter as a single mother.

She claimed that her child’s father was “living it up” in Geneva with his wife and three children, while she and her daughter – now aged 10 – had been left in relative poverty.

Despite having savings of £200,000 and an annual salary of £76,800 boosted by a £30,000 bonus, the court ruled that the man’s funds were “not limitless” – although he may have to increase his payments to the mother of his child should his salary exceed £106,800 in any one year.

The child – referred to in court as “O” – had managed to gain entry to a leading school and was described by her mother as bright and talented. Her maternal grandparents had been left by the absentee father to fund their granddaughter.

The child’s mother told the court that her “decaying” home required £85,000-worth of repairs and she had been forced to sell her care to make ends meet.

The child’s father had not returned to the UK since a court order was imposed on him by the Child Support Agency in 2004.

In 2010, the child’s mother managed to locate him via the French authorities and he then agreed to co-operate in providing some financial support for his daughter, contributing £30,000 in three payments and £1,200 per month to his daughter’s upkeep.

However, the child’s mother claims that her daughter‘s upbringing is in “stark contrast” to the lifestyle of her father’s other three children and their mother in Geneva, who enjoy four holidays a year and expensive hobbies like skiing.

Lord Justice Macfarlane said that the father’s employment as a salesman meant that his income was “susceptible to the ebb and flow of the market”, however.

He added that there was some merit in the father’s plea that his former lover’s demands amounted to a “wish list” rather than a “needs list”.

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