‘Financially reckless’ banker ordered to give remaining assets to ex-wife
A Court has ordered a City banker plagued by his own “financial recklessness” to give his remaining assets to his ex-wife, after he gambled away his family’s fortune.
Mr Amit Goyal, 39, found himself more than £650,000 in debt after colleagues at Deutsche Bank and UBS in London ‘egged him on’ to use increasingly high sums of money for ‘spread betting’.
The former banker and his beauty therapist wife, Ankita Ghuman, 35, first married in 2003.
The duo went from a £300,000 annual salary and regular luxury holidays to relying on state benefits and handouts by the time they decided to split in 2011, a Court heard.
Following a five-year divorce battle, the couple were left with just one asset: £19,000 worth of UBS shares – which an Appeals Court Judge awarded to Ms Ghuman on account of her husband’s “reckless financial behaviour”.
The disgruntled ex-banker was also ordered to pay Ms Ghuman £500 a month in maintenance, and to split his pension with his estranged ex-wife in retirement.
Mr Justice Cobb criticised Mr Goyal’s “financial recklessness”, but granted the easily-led gambler permission to appeal against splitting his pension at a later date.
The case highlights that if one spouse is financially reckless following a divorce, he or she could be liable to lose out in the final post-divorce settlement.
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