Sir Frederick Barclay WINS latest legal fight with ex-wife as judge finds ex-Telegraph owner is NOT in contempt of court for failing to pay £100million divorce settlement

• Tycoon was ordered to hand over £100m following end of their 34-year marriage
• Lady Hiroko Barclay had called for her ex husband to be jailed for contempt 
• She claims Sir Frederick has breached earlier court orders for failing to pay her
• Sir Frederick disputes her claims. His QC denies he is trying to ‘string things out’
• High Court has found he is not in contempt but has failed to pay maintenance
• The consequences of the failure to pay will be decided at hearing on August 11. 

The ex-wife of Daily Telegraph tycoon Sir Frederick Barclay has failed to prove that he is in contempt of court as a result of not paying a £100million divorce settlement following the breakdown of their 34-year marriage, a judge ruled today.

Lady Hiroko Barclay had asked a judge to jail him – accusing her ex-husband of trying to ‘string things out’ until ‘one or other of us dies’ to avoid paying.

However, the High Court found that his ex-wife had failed to prove that he could access the funds allegedly held in a complex web of offshore trusts and therefore he is not in contempt of court.

However, Judge Sir Jonathan Cohen did rule that Sir Frederick had breached orders relating to the payment of £185,000 of legal fees and maintenance of £60,000-a-month in a case that has already cost millions.

Sir Jonathan said he would consider what the consequences of Sir Frederick’s breaches might be at a hearing on August 11.

Lady Hiroko Barclay (left at a previous hearing) insists Sir Frederick Barclay (pictured today) has breached that order and accused him of being in contempt of court and asked the judge to consider a custodial sentence. Today the High Court ruled against her on this point but not on legal costs and maintenance 

It came after Lady Hiroko claimed her former husband had a punch-up at sea with his twin brother Sir David in a battle for control of their businesses. She alleged in her evidence in their London divorce battle this week that Sir Frederick had a fight with his identical sibling on board a yacht.

The Barclay brothers were among the UK’s most high-profile businessmen. Their business interests included Telegraph Media Group and The Ritz hotel in London. Sir David died in January last year, aged 86.  

Lady Hiroko said Sir Frederick, and his brother David, had acquired the freehold of Brecqhou – one of the Channel Islands – in 1993 and paid £2.3 million.

And she said her ex-husband and his brother had once had a brawl while abroad in a row over the running of their businesses. ‘There was a fight on a boat on the holiday,’ she told the judge, ‘They were punching each other’.

The brothers were reported to have bought the Leander G superyacht in around 2016, although it is not known if the alleged fight was on board.

She also told Sir Jonathan Cohen, who began overseeing a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London on Monday, that Sir Frederick had the means to pay but was aiming to ‘string things out’ until ‘one or other of us dies’.

Sir Frederick disputes her claims.

Lady Hiroko Barclay alleged that Sir Frederick (left) had a fight with his brother Sir David (right), in her evidence in their divorce battle

Around five years ago the Barclay brothers were reported to have bought the Leander G, a 75-metre yacht. It is not known if this is the yacht they had a fight on

Lady Barclay said Sir Frederick had ‘the means to pay’, adding: ‘For him to pretend otherwise is false.’

She told Sir Jonathan, in a written witness statement: ‘He has no respect for me or for the court. His aim is simply to string things out, hiding behind a web of complex structures (the initial purpose behind which was the avoidance of tax), allowing our daughter Amanda to fund all his financial needs, until one or other of us dies.’

The family also has links to the Channel Islands and Monaco.

Sir Jonathan had ruled that Sir Frederick should pay Lady Barclay sums totalling £100 million after overseeing their fight over money.

The judge criticised Sir Frederick, saying he had behaved in a ‘reprehensible’ fashion.

He said the businessman had sold a luxury yacht and ‘applied the equity for his own use’, in breach of orders.

The judge said Lady Barclay had wanted £120 million and Sir Frederick had made an offer which might have led her to getting nothing.  

In her witness statement, Lady Barclay said that while Sir Frederick claimed to have been evicted from a ‘palatial’ central London residence due to failing to keep up the mortgage, he had carried on staying there for some months, ‘seemingly undisturbed, with access to his ballroom and purpose-built oxygen chamber and attended by his housekeeper, security guard and driver’.

Sir Frederick’s lawyers insist he has been evicted.

On his failure to hand over the divorce settlement cash, Lady Barclay said: ‘Frederick says he cannot pay. He says he has no money. I do not believe him. It is not that he cannot pay, but that he will not pay. He has never had any intention of doing so.’

She added: ‘He has no respect for me or for the Court. His aim is simply to string things out, hiding behind a web of complex structures (the initial purpose behind which was the avoidance of tax), allowing our daughter, Amanda, to fund all his financial needs, until one or other of us dies.’

Sir Frederick and his twin brother, Sir David, were among the UK’s most high-profile businessmen. Sir David (left) died in January last year, aged 86

She went on to say: ‘If Frederick dies before I get my first lump sum, my monthly maintenance will stop. I will be left virtually penniless and almost certainly homeless after a relationship/marriage of close to half a century, where our standard of living was beyond extravagant.’

Lady Barclay also alleges that their daughter Amanda has become Sir Frederick’s ‘de facto banker’ and is ‘in charge of all financial and business matters about which he claims to know nothing’.

Judge Sir Jonathan Cohen previously criticised Sir Frederick, saying he had behaved in a ‘reprehensible’ fashion.

In an earlier ruling, he said the businessman had sold a luxury yacht and ‘applied the equity for his own use’ in breach of the court’s instructions.

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