Thursday 15 December 2016

Ex-husbands who don't pay up after divorce could face lose their driving licenses or passports



  • The only penalty a wife can ask for now is for husband to get prison sentence
  • Proposals mean husbands who don't pay could be banned from driving for a year
  • It was also recommended that judges have powers to confiscate passports
  • Justice Secretary Liz Truss will decide if these should form the basis of new laws


Reports in The Mail today, inform us that divorced men who try to wriggle out of paying off their ex-wives could face a driving ban.
Law reformers yesterday called for fresh sanctions against those who avoid paying divorce 
settlements ordered by the courts.
Among the penalties should be 12-month driving bans and the confiscation of passports, 
the Law Commission said.
The plan for husbands, and some wives, follows complaints that 'family financial orders' imposed 
in a divorce are frequently ignored, and that those who fail to pay cannot easily be punished.
At present the only penalty a wife can ask for if her former husband fails to pay up is a prison
sentence, but judges need a criminal standard of proof before they will send an unco-operative 
divorcee to jail, so the punishment is rarely enforced.

The Commission's recommendations mean a husband who has not paid could be disqualified from 
driving for a year. A court would return his licence if he handed over the money.
However, the report said, it would be self-defeating to impose a driving ban on someone who 
needed to drive to earn a living, because they would lose the ability to make the money to pay 
their former spouse.
So, it also recommended that judges should have powers to confiscate passports. Only UK 
passports should be taken, the report said, and they should be given back when the erring spouse 
pays up.