Divorcee Awarded Million Pound Home After Ex-partner Labelled ‘untrustworthy’

A wealthy property developer has been forced to hand over the jewel in a multi-million pound property portfolio to his ex-wife after being labelled “untrustworthy” by the courts after forging his ex-wife’s signature on a loan application prior to their divorce.

Jacob Ezair and his wife Sheila have been battling over a property portfolio worth more than £4.5m for several years, and this week, Mr Ezair was ordered to hand over the £1.5m five-bedroom family home.

Lord Justice Thorpe, sitting at the Court of Appeal in London, said that, when it came to deciding on the financial split, a crucial aspect involved Mr Ezair’s trustworthiness after evidence surfaced of him forging his wife’s signature on a loan application against their marital home.

Lord Justice Thorpe said the forgery raised the issue of whether he would properly look after his wife’s shares (and therefore her financial security) if she was given them as part of the divorce settlement, the Telegraph reported.

The Judge added: “So if he was not to be trusted in future it would be dangerous to give him absolute control of the business assets, given that her future financial security would reside in substantial part ... on the company shares”.

The Judge ruled that Mr Ezair would keep the company shares and assets, but the divorcee claimed that the ruling was unfair and he should be given a more equal share, and that the deal had left him with all the “risk-laden assets” from the marital split.

The Judge also allocated Mrs Ezair a 'lump sum' of £500,000, which has now been cut to £322,000 by the Appeal Court.

In March 2009, Mr Ezair made the loan application using his and Mrs Ezair’s signatures. His wife later denied signing her name and the Judge accepted her evidence, ruling: “The inevitable inference is that the husband has forged the wife’s signature.”

The couple had been married for 33 years but had been locked in a “long and complex” dispute over their assets since their marriage broke down in 2008.

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