‘Broke’ tycoon must pay wife £27k a month

A PROPERTY tycoon who claims he is broke must pay his estranged wife £27,500 (€31,000) a month, a High Court judge has ordered.

Mrs Justice Black said Scot Young should make the maintenance payments for his wife’s living and legal expenses until his financial affairs become “clearer” at a full hearing next year to divide the assets of their marriage.

Michelle Young claims her husband is worth £400 million and had sought £60,000 a month.

The judge was told that 47-year-old Mr Young was given £1.2m over three years by friends to pay for his and his estranged wife’s living expenses because he is broke.

The couple were married in 1995 and have two daughters. They separated in 2006 when Ms Young returned to Britain and petitioned for divorce.

Mr Young is claiming, said the judge, that he has no capital to pay his wife’s maintenance and had £28.5m in debts.

He said money had been provided by friends but they may no longer be prepared to do so after their names appeared in newspapers on the “instigation” of the wife.

The judge said “matters went off track” in the court proceedings almost immediately when Mr Young provided details of his assets which were “virtually useless”.

He claimed he now had nothing but debts but was trying to get back into business and hoped to start generating income again.

Mrs Justice Black said Ms Young had questioned the “change of fortune” and whether it was real.

At a hearing earlier this year, another judge found Mr Young in contempt for failing to provide more information about his assets and sentenced him to six months jail suspended to give him a chance to provide full details.

The decision on whether to impose the sentence was postponed again when Mr Young provided large amounts of material, said Mrs Justice Black.

Mr Young had failed to make proper disclosure in the earlier hearings and this had led to “suspicion and mistrust” by his wife.

David Balcombe QC, representing the wife, had said that Mr Young himself had put his worth at more than £120m in letters drawn up by his solicitors in 2004 and 2005.

The judge said Ms Young had been living on her capital since the funding stopped last year and now had just £30,000 left and owed £180,000 to divorce solicitors.

Questions remained over Mr Young’s “accuracy” over his finances, said the judge, and she was “cautious” over his inability to pay.