Sir Frederick Barclay faces a potential jail sentence after a judge found him in contempt of court for failing to pay his ex-wife £245,000 in legal fees and monthly maintenance costs.
The 87-year-old was ordered to return to court in two weeks for sentencing. He could be jailed or fined.
However, a high court judge also ruled that the businessman’s wife of 34 years, Lady Hiroko Barclay, had failed to prove he was in contempt of court for not paying her a £100m divorce settlement.
Lady Hiroko argued Sir Frederick had breached a judge’s order to pay her the money and had the means to pay but had not, and asked the judge to hand him a jail sentence.
But Sir Jonathan Cohen found she had failed to prove to the criminal standard necessary that Sir Frederick had enough funds to pay the sum, which should have been paid in two instalments by April this year.
In making his ruling, he said: “My finding does not in any way reduce [the husband’s] liability.”
The court heard evidence in a three-day hearing in which it was suggested that Sir Frederick’s nephews, Aidan, Howard and Alistair Barclay, had “blocked” his attempts to access his funds.
In his summing up, Charles Howard QC explained why a source of funding for Sir Frederick was cut off. “It’s quite obvious that this all coincides with the war between the two sides of the family and this was the reason for the drying up.”
In his judgment, Cohen was highly critical of the nephews, who run the Telegraph and who made several submissions to prevent the media reporting what they described as their confidential and private information.
“It is very striking that rather than assist in finding a solution which should be a matter of honour to this family, they refused to provide information, hiding behind the walls of the trust structure … while spending over £1m … in legal fees in trying to avert gaze of the media.”
