Court grants divorcee an extra £300,000

A judge increased a woman's divorce settlement by £300,000 yesterday even though the court had been told that she had left her husband and three daughters to set up home with a wealthy boyfriend.

The judge's ruling means Jayne Shaw, who has already received a £125,000 payment, will receive another £300,000 from her former husband, whose original £3.3m assets have been cut to just £1.6m by the court battle between the pair, who divorced in 1996.

Farmer Philip Shaw, who looks after the three children from the marriage, will also be liable for costs and charges amounting to another £60,000.

But Lord Justice Thorpe, giving the lead judgment yesterday at the Court of Appeal, said: "The court should censure the lack of candour in the wife's statements during the preparatory stages of the case."

After the couple divorced Mrs Shaw was awarded £400,000 to cover the cost of a home, a car and a clean break lump sum.

This was slashed to just £195,000 by Judge Victor Hall at Leicester County Court in September last year after he heard that she lived at a "gracious Georgian property" called Milton Farm in Harmston, Lincolnshire, with John Martin-Hoyes, had the use of four vehicles including an £80,000 Mercedes sports car, shopped at Harrods and Harvey Nichols with money provided by her boyfriend and enjoyed 15 foreign holidays .

When Mrs Shaw began her battle for her share of the family assets, Mr Shaw ran farms covering nearly 1,500 acres (607 hectares) in Lincolnshire. His holdings have now been reduced to just over 500 acres.

Mr Shaw fought his wife through the courts after learning of her relationship with Mr Martin-Hoyes.

Mrs Shaw had told a district court hearing that she had no plans to re-marry and needed a home of her own.

Mrs Shaw claimed at the Court of Appeal that she had made a full disclosure of her assets and that Judge Hall's settlement figure was "neither fair nor just". She was in court yesterday to hear of her victory but refused to speak after the hearing.

Peter Duckworth, representing Mr Shaw, said his client came from a farming family and he had acquired "sizeable tracts of land" before he met his future wife.

They had three daughters, aged 16, 14 and 12, for whom Mr Shaw cared after winning a residence order in 1996.

Lawyers representing Mr Shaw, who did not appear in court yesterday, said after the hearing that the settlement agreement had been restored but interest and legal costs had pushed it far beyond £300,000.