BL-2021-002235 - [2025] EWHC 1966 (Ch)

Accordingly, I am satisfied, to the criminal standard, that the respondent has committed contempt of court in breaching the order of 5 April 2022, by preparing and sending the letter of 2 January 2025 and the notice of 9 May 2025. When this judgment is handed down, I will adjourn the hearing to Friday 5 September 2025 to deal with consequential matters, including sentencing.

In the meantime, I remind the respondent that he will be entitled to appeal against the findings of contempt I have made without the need for permission, but otherwise in accordance with the procedural rules. That means that the appellant’s notice will have to be lodged with the Court of Appeal (which is the court to which any appeal lies) within 21 days of the order’s being made.

After I had circulated this judgment to the parties in draft, but before it was formally handed down, I received a letter from the defendant, sent to the court by email timed at 10:35 am on 31 July 2025. This letter does not seek to make any suggestion for correction of “typographical or other obvious errors or corrections of a similar nature” in the draft judgment, as envisaged by paragraph 12.87 of the Chancery Guide.

Instead, it seeks to raise three further matters which could have been raised by the defendant before the hearing took place, and to re-argue a fourth point – the non-joinder of the family trust – that was made in the defendant’s written submissions. (This is specifically forbidden by paragraph 12,87.) It is far too late for the first three points, and the fourth is an abuse. I have accordingly ignored all of them.