Tycoon refused appeal over divorce deal

Tycoon refused appeal over divorce deal

Shan Lambert was awarded £10m in an appeal last year

A newspaper tycoon has been refused permission to appeal against a court ruling giving his ex-wife half their £20m assets.

Harry Lambert, former chairman of the Adscene newspaper business, had his bid turned down by the House of Lords on Friday.

His 50-year-old wife Shan Lambert had been granted half their fortune by a Court of Appeal decision last October.

That verdict had overturned an earlier ruling giving her £7.5m - itself one of the largest divorce settlements in British legal history.

Equal contribution

Mrs Lambert was given the marital home, Ringleton Manor, near Sandwich in Kent , worth £1.4m, the adjoining Ringleton Lodge, worth £250,000, assets worth £2.8m and a lump sum of £3,152,732.

She had appealed against that settlement, claiming that as she made an equal contribution as a wife to the success of the Adscene business, she was entitled to half its selling price.

The judge who gave her the original £7.5m pay-out said the couple had built up a "pot of gold" during their 23-year marriage.

Mr Lambert, 58, greeted news of his ex-wife's appeal success last October by saying she would "never get a penny" of the extra money.

He petitioned the Law Lords for the right to appeal against the enlarged settlement, but a panel of three - Lords Nicholls, Hope and Hobhouse - refused him leave to appeal.