thai wife is a theif

margaretclare

Hi Charlie, sorry for the gender confusion

What may have happened is that your relative went somewhere in London - the Thai Embassy or the Home Office possibly - and discovered that the marriage was not valid under our law. Remember what happened to Mick Jagger and one of his ex-wives, was it Jerry Hall - they went to some glamorous place and underwent a 'ceremony' of some kind, and it wasn't until she eventually wanted a divorce that it was revealed that the marriage had never existed legally. Anyone can go and stand on a beach at sunset and make up their own 'vows', many people do - but unless that 'marriage' is valid in the country where it is made then it's not valid back in the UK.

It's amazing how many people think that 'common law marriages' exist - they don't and they never have, in England at least. In Scotland, I believe, it's a little different.

Aunty Margaret

LittleJo

Hi,
A common-law wife is a wife where the marriage was contracted under the law of a foreign country.
jo

Edinburghlass_2

From this website

However, in Scotland, there is a form of common law marriage called 'marriage by cohabitation with habit and repute'. The theory behind this law is that if a man and woman live together as husband and wife in Scotland for sufficient time and are generally held and considered to be husband and wife and are free to marry each other, it will be presumed that they have consented to marry each other and if this presumption is not overturned, they will be considered to be legally married. However, it isn't easy to establish a marriage by this method. If you consider these circumstances may apply to you, you should consult a solicitor specialising in family law.

Do note, however, that �marriage by cohabitation with habit and repute� will not be valid for much longer. A Bill was passed on 15 December 2005, called the Family Law (Scotland) Bill, which has abolished this form of common law marriage for parties whose period of cohabitation starts after this Bill comes into force. Even though the Bill was passed in December, it has not yet come into force.

Debt_Free_Chick

LittleJo wrote:

Hi,
A common-law wife is a wife where the marriage was contracted under the law of a foreign country.
jo

That may be the case (though I've never heard it before) but unless the marriage is recognised in the UK, then the female party is not a wife in any legal context. Divorce in the UK does not cover "common law wives" and they have do not have the same rights as a legal spouse (or, since December, a recognised Civil Partner).

It might be valid label, but it affords no legal status I'm afraid.

CIS

Common law wife refers to a non marriage for people just living as husband/wife, any marriage abroad (subject to certain constraints) is a legal marriage in the UK and is treated as such.

Legality of the marriage is dealt with here
http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1007029391287

and heres the marriage process from the UK embassy in thailand
http://www.britishembassy.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1068717516870

charlie2309

hi guys , havn't been able to speak to uncle today as he seems to be practically working day and night to pay these bills, but have seen his best friend john who is also married to a thai girl, he told me the marriage was legal over here but they definatly did get divorced at the thai embassy in london when she stole the first lot of money, john went with them to the embassy so hopefully apart from maybe child maintainance she should not be entitled to anything else from him.

Bossyboots

LittleJo wrote:

Hi,
A common-law wife is a wife where the marriage was contracted under the law of a foreign country.
jo

I agree with CIS and DFC on this one.

MSE_Martin

IMPORTANT. Some of the posts included names of people involved. I have deleted that. I'm afraid if any more names or possible points of identification are included in future posts the thread will have to be deleted

martin

margaretclare

MSE_Martin wrote:

IMPORTANT. Some of the posts included names of people involved. I have deleted that. I'm afraid if any more names or possible points of identification are included in future posts the thread will have to be deleted

martin

Sorry, Martin, I mentioned the names of Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall.

Apologies.

Margaret Clare

shirlyn

Your uncle can get the post re-directed to find the statements for the Thailand account.