We married & had a child in the UK, then we moved to a country. After a while we divorced there. The court defined a child support which was adequate for that country considering my and her income. I was paying it regularly for years and on top was paying various other expenses.
My ex decided to move back to the UK for better career prospects and asked for my permission to take our son there. She said it's going to be just for a year or two as she wanted to get exposure to a particular industry which she said is going to enable her to come back and command a higher salary.
I was a bit reluctant as this would mean less contact to my child but what made me change my mind was that my child may benefit from exposure to another country.
She moved to the UK and got a much better salary. I continued paying the maintenance as stipulated in our divorce and on top of that was having expenses related to travelling regularly to the UK to see my son.
2 years later it seems that she, actually, wants to stay longer. Or maybe that was her intention all along - I don't know. I stupidly didn't formalise the agreement and put any time constraints.
The worst came only recently - she applied to the court in the UK to get a higher child support as she says that her expenses in the UK are much higher than in the other country. Which they probably are but her salary is even higher than it used to be there.
The thing that caught my attention was that she has, actually, lied in her affidavit when describing her income.
First, she didn't list the bonus that she would be normally entitled to (which may be up to 30% annual salary).
But the worst is that she didn't mention that she receives income from renting 2 properties outside of the UK. I know she does this as she has mentioned this in conversations. But I don't have any proof. I doubt that she has listed this income in her UK tax statement. I also doubt that she has declared it in a tax statement abroad. The only proof I have is that she owns one of these properties. Can I somehow prove that she has lied about her income? I know the address of that property and can make a pic that the light is on in the evening. But would this be sufficient? This is important not just to establish her true income but also to establish that she has committed a perjury.
You may need to see a specialist solicitor about this. If she uses CMS, then her income is irrelevant, any amount is based solely on your income, so I don't think you'd achieve anything by proving her income/bonus/renatal income. However, I think you need to seek advice on whether a UK court would actually overrule an order made by a foreign court, and if that's the case, she'd probably have to go back to that court to get the order changed, if they would event entertain the idea.
@actd Thanks for your quick reply!
She filed in court because her claims are not just about higher child maintenance but also about a residence order. So there is an affidavit. And in that affidavit she put a much lower number for her income. Based on back of envelope calculations her income is somewhere between 4000 and 4500 pounds net per month but she put only 3420. The rest is what i suppose is her income from the bonus and from renting her properties. So it is, actually, a significant difference.
I also found another false financial statement in her affidavit - that one I won't have any issues disproving. But as it is about a period which is long in the past she may claim "innocent mistake". Also that statement is not as relevant to the claims she filed thus the court may decide that it is insignificant. However, the statement about her current income forms a central part of her affidavit and is directly related to one of the claims she has filed. Which is why I would like to disprove it.
If she's gone to court to change the residence, that could reset everything - the question is whether her income has any bearing on the outcome of that order. If she does succeed, any order the court makes about maintenance would quite possibly be based around the CMS calculations (especially if she says that's what she is basing them on) and CMS do not take into account her income, they work purely on the income of the Non Resident Parent. But as I said, I would certainly get at least an initial consultation with a legal professional to clarify the position of the UK court where there is already a foreign court order in place.