his girlfriend's Thai bank account

[wombat 5]

A FAMILY Court judge has jailed a man indefinitely after he borrowed nearly $500,000 against the value of a house and transferred most of the money to his girlfriend's Thai bank account in a bid to avoid paying a property settlement to his wife.

The man, aged in his mid-50s, has been placed in Perth's maximum security Hakea Prison after being convicted of contempt for flouting court orders relating to the division of the former couple's assets.

 

 

The man also lied about his $US12,000 ($15,900) a month salary as a project manager in China, refused to pay child support for his 11-year-old son, and claimed his girlfriend in Thailand refused to return the money.

 

The indefinite jail term - a punishment rarely used by the nation's family courts - means the man will remain behind bars until he purges the contempt. This means he must return the money to the couple's asset pool to allow his wife to be paid the $438,000 she is owed.

 

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was ordered to pay his wife 57.5 per cent of the value of their $1.2 million in assets. The wife had kept a house in Western Australia's southwest, leaving the husband to pay her nearly $400,000.

 

A court order prevented him from disposing of or encumbering a property in Avoca Beach, NSW, which was the couple's biggest asset.

 

In contravention of the court order, the husband borrowed more than $497,000 using the Avoca Beach property as security and arranged to sell the house to a family friend for $700,000.

 

The sale was stopped by a caveat, but the husband already had the loan funds, paying $12,000 to his grandmother, $60,000 to a family friend and depositing $400,000 into his girlfriend's bank account in Thailand.

 

Some of the $400,000 was used to repay debts, but $250,000 was used to buy two houses and land in Thailand.

 

The husband says the properties are held in his girlfriend's name and she refuses to sell them.

 

"The effect of the husband's contempt was to reduce the asset pool available to the wife in Australia by $500,000," Justice Julienne Penny commented in a written finding.

 

"This contempt was deliberate and involved a positive course of conduct on his part to ensure the wife would not be able to enforce the judgment sum payable to her."

 

Justice Penny said the husband claimed to regret his actions, but she found this difficult to believe after he made numerous attempts to flee Australia, including plans to leave the country on a cargo ship from the north coast to Papua New Guinea, and the purchase of a $60,000 yacht to sail to Port Moresby.

 

"It was only through having access to the husband's credit card statements that the wife was able to ascertain the husband's whereabouts and have him arrested," she said.

 

"In my view, the only thing the husband is remorseful about is being arrested in Queensland, returned to Western Australia and imprisoned."

 

Justice Penny said the man could not be trusted to leave the country to work to repay his wife.

 

She said there were assets worth $120,000 that could be used to partly repay the wife, but the husband would not be released until the balance was repaid up to a total of $500,000.

 

He will also have to pay his wife's costs before being released.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15326683-421,00.html

[Krowdon 0]

Wow.. Some Thai lady is sitting happy about right now... She got his money, bought a couple houses, and he's in jail so can't come get it back... Someone wasn't thinking this plan out very well... LOL

[BigDUSA 71]

We have a guy in Pennsylvania who's a millionaire setting in jail for the last 6 years for doing something similar. Judge has told him he holds the keys to his cell but the jerk off would rather sit in jail then share the wealth with his wife.

 

Ozzie guy deserved what he got and his girl friend got what she deserved.

[scarface 0]

Bet the thai girl still does the odd short time

[Shit_Happens 31]

Gotta agree with Krowdon, not a lot of thought has gone into this guys plan. Thai property laws being what they are he has not got a chance of getting the $400,000 back. Just trying to send this amount back out of the country is near impossible.

He should have just paid up. If he is capable of earning $15900 a month it would not have taken him long to recoup his loss.

Sounds like he will have a nice long stay in jail

[monkeyman 1,604]

Someone wasn't thinking this plan out very well...

Oh, I think someone thought it out VERY well.

Edited May 26, 2005 by monkeyman