Case No. EWFC-75

he stated in his Form E that he had an income of £9,216 p.a [276]. In his statement at G39 he says that his current income is £1,417.99 each month, net. He says that he works for an average of 43.33 hours a week and describes himself as being at the ‘pinnacle’ of his employment and not able to earn more [G39]. He produces some of his P60’s for the years 20/21 and 21/22 at K312-313 and some of his pay statements at K313 – K356. The pay statement at K356 relates to the four week period ending 30 April 2022 and shows a net income of £1417.99. The pay statements show that he is paid every four weeks, not monthly, therefore, his total net income would be £18,433.87 net p.a. on that basis. After paying £243.64 in child maintenance (i.e. £2923.68 p.a.), he would be left with about £15,500 net p.a. He does not pay rent for his accommodation at 50-52 High Street, nor does he pay any utility bills there. He has access to food from the restaurant also. 86.The husband’s true income was something that received very little attention in cross examination that was focussed on the trust claims. It was me who called for the accounts of the company, Bluebird Restaurant Ltd and who asked the main body of questions about them. I examine those accounts later (under the heading of the company’s name below). Overall I am sure (sic) that the husband has under-declared his income and that he is taking far more out of the business than he has stated. 87.In his statement, he said that he needs to be housed in a one-two bedroom property in Burnham and that a suitable property would cost between £219,950 and £250,000. He says that his borrowing capacity is very limited, given his income and liabilities. At I-4 there is a letter from Lloyds Bank suggesting that, on the basis of an income of £19,761 and maintenance payments of £137 p.m. (sic) it would lend him £34,360. The issue of his housing needs and mortgage raising ability was not pursued at all during the hearing; I was not referred to any property details although I will set out the bundle contents on that issue later. 88.I think it highly unlikely that this husband will buy a property. He is much more likely to live within the tightly united and intermingled society of his family and work colleagues at 50-52 High St whilst using accommodation at the homes of others, including Ms Sume Begum, when he feels the need to do so.89.He holds the former matrimonial home, 37 St Michaels Ave, Clevedon in his sole name. It was bought on 11th March 2014. It has been valued by Connells at ‘£500,000+ and an initial asking price in the region of £525,000’ [H8]. The husband says at G39 that it was bought ‘in part by using a private mortgage of £60,000 (charged against the property) and further unsecured loans from family members. The monthly repayments were originally £2,240; as a result of the pandemic, these have been reduced to £550 and now £540 per month. I have always and continue to pay the full monthly mortgage payments. I am reliant on family members to assist me each month in paying these. ’ I have already stated that any loans that he does have are ‘very soft’. 90.The property is subject to a mortgage to a Brian and Annette Buckley. During the hearing I was handed a copy of the Land Registry document headed ‘Land Registry – Legal charge of a registered estate – CH1’, dated 11th March 2014. That document records the terms of the charge over the property in favour of Mr and Mrs Buckley. I was also handed a copy of the Official Copy of the register of title relating to this property. It records that the husband is the sole proprietor and also that there is a registered charge in favour of the Buckleys.91.At D6 the husband says that he ‘obtained a private mortgage from Brian Ward Buckley and his wife Annette Kathleen Buckley for £170,000 [sic] plus interest. The charge was drawn up by their solicitor Mr S Pritchard of Menmeer Shuttleworth, Bexhill. I attach, marked MAU 2, a copy of the legal charge dated 11th March 2014, Land registry Form CH1 dated 11th March 2014 and Office Copy entries in relation to 37 St Michael’s Avenue. I borrowed monies from family members to deal with the balance of the purchase monies from family members to deal with the balance …and attach marked MAU3 copies of the two cheques from J Begum totalling £70,000 and a bank transfer from my brother’s wife of £50,000.’92.The wife says: ‘there is a soft loan mortgage agreement where a payment of £2,240 is made monthly to a Mr & Mrs Buckley. The declared income of D1 namely £739.00 per month, demonstrates that there was no way he was able to meet a monthly mortgage payment of £2,240 without additional monthly income which C says was derived from the two-business interest which D1 had throughout their marriage.’93.There is no doubt that the mortgage exists and is a proper, hard loan that has to be repaid. The charge is recorded on the Official Copy of the register. Since the wife has never filed a Form A, she cannot have complied with Rule 9.13 (3) of the 2010 Rules and so, if necessary, I will delay the issue of the order in this case whilst that is done. The wife made this assertion about the mortgage at C2 ‘as far as I understand, the purchase was cash from monies we had from the various businesses. But little did I know he has made a secret document to show that he had a mortgage from some friend; this is not true, this is a fictitious arrangement between H, Brain Buckley and Annette Buckley.’ It is not ‘fictitious’ at all; her assertion is an example of her not having studied essential documents before making allegations in these proceedings. 94.There is no current documentary evidence about the amount of the mortgage. At F421 there is a letter from Mr and Mrs Buckley, dated 21st February 2019, which reads: ‘this is to confirm that the capital balance owing on your mortgage contract regarding 37 St Michael’s Avenue, Clevedon…between you and Brian and Annette Buckley…is £50,000.’ When I asked, I was told that the mortgage now stands at about £10,000. That means that it appears that the mortgage reduced from £170k (if that be the correct figure) in 2014 to £10k in 2022 – a repayment of capital alone of £160k in eight years. Plainly, on the income that the husband has disclosed, that sum could not have been paid from his wages since the capital repayments alone would average out at £20k p.a.95.In his Form E the husband says that he has debts of £260,909.36. In his statement at G40 he says that he owes:96.The husband seeks to suggest that the debts to Mr Haque and to Jalal Uddin (a work colleague) arose from money that he borrowed to pay the mortgage on St Michael’s Avenue.97.At K492 there is a letter from Mr Haque (R4, sometimes call Hoque) in which he says that the husband is borrowing £2,000 every month from him for his mortgage repayments. He says: ‘this is to help him get through his difficult time as he is getting a divorce. This money will be paid back to me once everything is sorted. I have been making this payment since 1/3/2017 to 4/5/2020. I have stopped making payment because I am struggling to pay Alim Uddin as the pandemic has affected me a lot. The total amount that Alim owns [sic] me is hundred and eight thousand pounds [sic]. However, I have been struggling to maintain my monthly expenditure. I would sincerely appreciate Alim Uddin returns my money as soon as possible either via sale of the property or further lending.’98.I will set out in much more detail the evidence that Mr Haque gave about this. However, one aspect of that evidence was that Mr Haque was sure that the period in which he had been paying £2,000 p.m. was from 1st March 2017 to 4th May 2020. In his Form E, the husband sought to suggest that Mr Haque had been lending him £2,000 p.m. since March 2014, when St Michael’s Avenue was bought. Thus, not only is there an unexplained (and unexplored by W) difference in the suggested periods of the alleged loan but the evidence revealed that Mr Haque was earning no more than £1600 a month in the initial stages of the loan period that he alleges (2017 to July 2018) and did not have the resources to make any such loan. Although I set this out in detail later, Mr Haque was working part-time at the Tesco’s checkout and also as a waiter at the restaurant. 99.Another immediate aspect of the unreliability of the evidence about the Haque ‘loan’ is that the husband said in his Form E that Mr Haque was owed £82,000 in relation to it [F8]. The Form E is dated 26th November 2018 but the financial information about the loans was said in the Form E to show the position as at August 2018 (see para 2.9 at F8). Payments of £2,000 a month from 1st March 2017 until August 2018 would have totalled £36,000, not £82,000. 100.One of the most painful parts of this hearing was watching Mr Haque giving his embarrassingly untruthful evidence and being faced with the documentation that shows that he was used by the husband as a conduit for the husband to draw money out of the business. There is no loan from Mr Haque or Bluebird Restaurant Ltd to the husband, of that I am satisfied so that I am sure (i.e. to the criminal standard of proof). The fact that the falsely called ‘loan’ was stated to be from Mr Haque to the husband and not from Bluebird Restaurant Ltd shows that the two were viewed as being interchangeable. 101.At K493 there is a letter from Jalal Uddin, dated 27th February 2019 (sic) in which he says: ‘this letter is to confirm that I…help Alim Uddin…every month for his mortgage payment. I borrow [sic] Alim £460 every month to help him, to pay his mortgage…as promised this will be paid back to me once he is back on his good term again.’. The husband referred to this in his Form E [F8]. Given the state of the husband’s evidence, the dishonesty of the evidence that was given in relation to the Haque ‘loan’ and the fact that I do not have any oral evidence from Jalal Uddin, it would be perverse to accept the existence of a loan in favour of Mr Jalal Uddin. If there is such a loan, it is very soft, I find. 102.That being so in relation to the figurehead, Mr Haque, who was given the position of nominal owner of the business in 2018, I think it highly likely that the same applies in relation to the previous nominal owner of the business, Rexvilla Ltd of whom Enu Tazul was the sole shareholder and director. Nothing that I have heard or read persuades me that there is any true loan from Enu Tazul to the husband. 103.There is another point about the husband’s evidence in relation to the mortgage payments. In his statement at G41. He says that, until the pandemic, he was borrowing £2,000 p.m. from Mr Haque for the mortgage payments and £460 p.m. from Mr J Uddin. Those payments that were purported being paid to the husband by Jalal Uddin and Mr Haque totalled £2,460 p.m. and stopped in March 2020. In his statement, the husband says: ‘I now pay £540 less towards the monthly mortgage payments’. Thus, he is seeking to suggest that, on the resources that he has had, he paid £2460-£540 p.m. = £1,920 p.m. Since March 2020 his four-weekly net income has ranged between £1,278.68 p.m. [K329] and £1,417.99 [K356], with it often being no more than £1,085.24 [K339]. Thus the mortgage payments that he says that he was making exceeded his total net income, according to his disclosure. The only way in which he could have done that is by continuing to take additional money out of the business, as he did when using Mr Haque as the conduit for that stream of money. 104.I wish to emphasise that I find that, in the case of the alleged debt to Mr Haque, the evidence given by the husband and Mr Haque was dishonest. There is no other word for it. 105.