Grasso v Naik & 20 other irregular divorce petitions (Queen’s Proctor intervening) [2017] EWHC 2789 (Fam)

In this decision the President of Family Division, Sir James Munby, concurred with the submissions of the Queen’s Proctor that some 21 divorces had been tainted by fraud not least as the address given on the petition of one or other party to the petitions was a lie. Accordingly he ordered that all the decrees of divorce in the 21 petitions would be set aside and consequently the marriages subsist. Further the President ordered that the Queen’s Proctor’s costs be paid, on the indemnity basis, in all cases by a third Party namely a disbarred former barrister who had purported to act on behalf of a party to each petition.

Simon P G Murray of 1 Chancery Lane, a member of the Attorney General’s A Panel of Junior Counsel to the Crown, was counsel for the Queen’s Proctor. A further report of the case can be found in the Law Gazette at https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/munby-cancels-21-divorces-handled-by-fraudster-ex-barrister/5063605.article .