Judge says couple's £850,000 divorce is financial suicide

Judge: couple's £850,000 divorce is financial suicide

Mr Justice Holman calls legal battle a tragedy and begs doctor and lawyer to resolve their differences
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Press Association

The Guardian, Thursday 25 July 2013 18.53 BST



The high court judge said Aloke Ray and Charoo Sekhri had spent nearly a quarter of their combined wealth. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian


A high court judge has said a couple have committed "financial suicide" by spending £850,000 on legal bills during their divorce.

Aloke Ray, 41, and his estranged wife Charoo Sekhri, who is in her late 30s, had each spent a "staggering" £430,000 after starting divorce litigation, said Mr Justice Holman.

The judge said the couple, a lawyer and a doctor who met via an internet dating agency, had spent nearly a quarter of their combined wealth of around £4m.

He said he had begged them to resolve their differences and described the story as a tragedy.

Holman was speaking as he ruled on the latest stage of the divorce cash fight at a hearing in the family division of the high court in London.

The judge ruled that Sekhri could pursue divorce proceedings in England even though she and her estranged husband were both of Indian origin and currently lived in Singapore. He said both had been legally "domiciled" in England.

Holman said Ray was a partner in an American law firm and his wife a hospital doctor. The judge said they had met via a dating agency in 2008, married in 2009 and had a two-year-old son.

He said arguments had started in 2011 and divorce had become inevitable. Their dispute had centred on which country their divorce should proceed in.

The judge said "somewhere" Ray would have to make "fair provision" for Sekhri. And he said their "sustained forensic struggle" had been "painful to observe".

some people have got more money than sense

You can say that again Badboy...they were only married for 3 years!!!