Woman left a ‘pauper’ after £3.65m divorce settlement

A WOMAN who married her lodger will have to sell her “magnificent” country home to meet a divorce judgement.

A panel of judges at the Court of Appeal, headed by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, ruled that Heather Martin-Dye must pay her former husband another £650,000 on top of the £3m he has already received under the settlement.

Ms Martin-Dye, 54, who said she brought 90% of the assets into the marriage to former British Airways pilot Philip, claimed after the hearing that she had been reduced to a pauper.

She said she owned Green Lane Farm in Shamley Green, Surrey, before her marriage in 1987 and it was her children’s home and her only source of income.

“I am dismayed,” she said. “When we were first married I owned most of the assets, but I am now having to pay my ex-husband so much money that I must sell my family home and downsize.”

She added: “This judgement has pauperised me.”

“From being a strong independent woman with multimillion-pound assets, I am now reduced to the level of a maintained ex-wife.”

The judges allowed an appeal by Mr Martin-Dye, 55, that his British Airways pension should not be treated as a capital asset for the purposes of the divorce settlement.

Because it was valued at over £900,000, Mrs Martin-Dye receives far less under the terms of the original settlement which divided the total assets 57% in her favour.

In return she gets a 57% share of the British Airways pension which pays out £37,000 a year, and Mr Martin-Dye has a 43% share of his former wife’s £5,800-a-year pension policy.

Mr Martin-Dye said outside court: “I do not see it as a victory because this is the result I should have got at the outset of these proceedings.

“But in the light of what has been happening in the divorce courts recently, I see it as a small triumph for man.”

His solicitor, Henry Brookman, said the case set a precedent in that the courts can no longer equate pension values with other capital assets.

Mr Martin-Dye met his future wife when he rented a room in what was described by a district judge as her “magnificent” country home.

Costs of the case, which the former partners will share, are estimated at around £1 million.