Help! Divorce in Gambia

tubster

Hi
My sister met someone in Gambia half her age. She lived with him over there, bought him a taxi which failed as a business. Then they got married in Gambia and she brought him back to the UK. They have been living together here for just over 2 years. He got a job working long hours stacking shelves and saved up a lot of money to take home, then said he was going back for a break; and finished the relationship on the phone.
This is a really sad story and I don't know what his motivations were; probably a mixture of things. My sister is very upset. She really thought his intentions were honest and didn't see this coming. She has also woken up to the fact that her life savings might be vulnerable in a divorce, although the subject has not been raised yet (they are in email contact). She would like to get a divorce.
Does anyone have any experience of divorce in the Gambian context? Should she transfer over her savings to her daughters to protect them? Can she serve notice of a divorce in this country to someone in another country? If anyone has experience of this I would really appreciate some advice. She rents a flat and just has the remains of her savings from selling a house years before they met. He has nothing apart from the money he saved up here.
Tubster

scoobydo_2

Not a gambian divorce but an english one . to be entiltled to free legal help I had the small amout of savings I had (£4000 ) into my kids accounts . so this never showed as being mine by the time the soliciters were involved . I would move your money into a safe account like your daughters .

Bossyboots

scoobydo wrote:

Not a gambian divorce but an english one . to be entiltled to free legal help I had the small amout of savings I had (£4000 ) into my kids accounts . so this never showed as being mine by the time the soliciters were involved . I would move your money into a safe account like your daughters .

This is fraud, please do not pass on the advice unless you want to risk her getting caught.

As part of the financial settlement for the divorce she could be called upon to produce all records for the last six years (or less if the marriage was less then six years ago). Any transactions can be queried and if they are, they have to be explained.

As far as the practicalities go, divorce proceedings could be instigated here and served on him abroad. He still needs to acknowledge receipt so she is reliant on him to play ball in this respect. She will also need a financial consent order to prevent him coming after your assets in future years.

In view of the short duration of the marriage and the fact that he has run off with a wad of money, he is unlikely to be able to stake much of a claim against her assets but I think her biggest problem is going to be getting him to cooperate and signing the required papers.

tubster

Thank you both, I'll pass this on. It sounds like she will need some legal advice - if she transferred the savings as a genuine gift I think it would make things more difficult for him at least. Who actually decides in such a situation - and what happens if he doesn't sign the papers?
Tubster

Bossyboots

tubster wrote:

Thank you both, I'll pass this on. It sounds like she will need some legal advice - if she transferred the savings as a genuine gift I think it would make things more difficult for him at least. Who actually decides in such a situation - and what happens if he doesn't sign the papers?
Tubster

He could still challenge the gift. It would be for a court to decide if they couldn't agree.

If he doesn't sign the papers then her next step is try to prove that he would have received them if they are sent to a particular address. She would have to provide a statement as to why it would be reasonable to assume he had them. This only applies to the divorce papers, if he doesn't sign the consent order then the only option is court proceedings to ask the court to make an order in his absence. To be honest she could well be facing a long drawn out struggle to get divorced and get the finances settled.