Gathering evidence – keep it legal!

The Court of Appeal is to decide if two brothers who stole 20,000 documents to help their sister in her divorce from her multimillionaire husband should be allowed to use them to expose the true state of his finances, The Times reports.

Property tycoons Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz claim that they should not have to hand back the stolen data, which they took from Vivian Imerman, the former owner of Del Monte Foods, to help their sister, Lisa Tchenguiz, in her claim for £100 million.

They argue that the material, taken from a computer in the office that Mr Imerman shared with the Tchenguiz brothers, is needed because Mr Imerman is concealing his true financial position.

Desmond Browne, QC, representing the brothers claims that Mr Imerman’s right to confidentiality had to be weighed against the right of his wife to a fair trial.The hearing continues.

“What’s interesting here is the whole issue of ‘full and frank disclosure,’” says Woolley & Co senior partner Andrew Woolley.

“In order for any decision on a financial settlement to be made both parties are required to disclose details of all their assets, property, pensions and business interests. The suggestion here is that Mr Imerman has failed to be ‘full and frank’. Whilst we can’t condone the actions of the brothers as divorce lawyers, we’d certainly want our client to have access to all the financial documents so that a fair settlement could be arrived at.”

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