May 6, 2015

Man locked in £1.2million divorce battle accused of hacking emails

To begin with, Daniel and Catriona Arbili – who married in 2002 - had reached an agreement about equally dividing their assets, which included a house in rural Essex, £50,000 worth of luxury watches and an Aston Martin.

But Mr Arbili, 43, has fought a two year legal battle to have the settlement torn up.   He is claiming that his former wife has more assets than either he or the divorce court previously assumed. This meant that, under the terms of the original settlement, she had received a disproportionately large percentage of the couple’s wealth.

He cites emails which show Mrs Arbili would be in line for a windfall from the sale of her parents’ £2.1m home in the French Alps.

She argues that he only acquired the information by hacking into her account.

Addressing the Court of Appeal hearing, Mrs Arbili’s legal team argued that the evidence was illicit because it had been obtained through a “gross invasion” of privacy.

The information was said to have been gathered by a private investigator, but Mr Arbili had failed to name the individual or reveal the instructions he had given them.

Judge Horowitz, sitting in the Family Courts, had previously refused to consider the evidence or reopen the case, which prompted Mr Arbili to take his case to the Court of Appeal.

The appeal judges have reserved their decision on the case until a later date.

To find out more about the family services we provide, please contact Patrick Hart from our Family Law team today.

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