Groom fined pounds 1,300 for jilting his bride

LEAVING A bride standing at the altar will cost you heavily in Argentina.

A magistrate in Cordoba fined an errant groom pounds 1,300 for "moral damages" five and a half years after he jilted his fiancee. Judge Julio Sanchez Torres ruled that "to break the relationship in such an unjust and untimely fashion" caused this woman "a pain that was difficult to support".

He admonished the man, who was not named, for "negligence in not communicating the fact that he would not marry until the last moment".

The couple met at the University of Cordoba in northern Argentina and went on many holidays with the woman's family. They had chosen the names for future children and decided on a wedding date in December 1993, just before the bride turned 30.

But then, according to the court transcript, "the bridegroom stated that, although he loved her, he could not wed, because he was already involved in another sentimental situation".

After the public humiliation, the woman spent an entire year in a state of depression, unable to find employment, much less a new boyfriend.