Freeths wins High Court case ruling on monetary gifting

Leading law firm Freeths has achieved a High Court victory to reclaim a multi-million-pound family gift.

The firm acted on behalf Ed Thomas and Matthew Carter, who were appointed as trustees in the bankruptcy of Rai Hamilton after he fell out with former business partner John Jones over business dealings. This led to substantial litigation over property and company holdings.

During this initial court case in mid-2016, UK freezing orders were ordered to stop Mr Jones from moving assets.  In late 2016 and early 2017, Mr Jones gifted his son £3 million which came from a €100 million property deal in Luxembourg. The effect was that, when Mr Hamilton was successful in court, Mr Jones claimed to have no money to pay the judgment. In 2023, Mr Jones spent time in prison for contempt of court in breaching freezing orders. Those orders did not however include the monetary present to his son.

Freeths’ property litigation partner David Marsden led a team who successfully argued to the High Court that the gift to Mr Jones’ son was made to defraud creditors.

ICC Judge Prentis found that Mr Jones was trying to avoid paying Mr Hamilton by transferring the £3 million his son, which will now have to be repaid.

Commenting on the ruling, David Marsden said: “This case is a useful reminder that it is possible to overturn payments to third parties that are designed to avoid payment of a potential future judgment debt, there doesn’t even need need to be any insolvency or even any fraud – it is the intention that counts. It is also a clear message to anybody hoping to avoid paying debts by gifting them away, that this carries wide-reaching consequences as - even if it looks legitimate, it can be challenged and reversed.”