£18m Susan Sangster is a career divorcée says husband No4

After amassing £18million and going through three divorces, you might think Susan Sangster would prefer a quiet life.

But the former model is now pursuing her fourth husband in the divorce courts for a slice of his £45million fortune.

When Mrs Sangster, 50, married property developer Stuart Crossley, they signed prenuptial agreements, saying they would not make financial claims against each other if their marriage failed.

In less than two years it did - but she headed for the divorce courts.

Mrs Sangster, who uses the name of her third husband, Robert Sangster, claims that Mr Crossley - who describes her as "a serial divorcée" - failed to tell her about "tens of millions" more sitting in offshore accounts. She believes they could contain up to £60million.

However, at a High Court hearing in October, Mr Crossley's lawyers won the right to shorten normal procedures and allow the case to be heard in a day, rather than in multiple hearings.

The ruling means that at the next hearing in February, Mrs Sangster will find it difficult to convince judges in a day that she should be awarded a divorce payout.

The judge granted the permission because the couple were married for only 14 months, there were no children, both had independent wealth, and had signed a prenuptial agreement forbidding court action over finances on divorce.

Mrs Sangster appealed. But yesterday three Court of Appeal judges dismissed her appeal, paving the way for legal examination into the validity of pre-nuptial agreements.

Backing the fast-track procedure, Lord Justice Matthew Thorpe, one of the country's most senior divorce judges, described the case as "quite exceptional".

"If ever there is to be a paradigm case in which the courts will look to the pre-nuptial agreement as not simply one of the peripheral factors of the case, but a factor of magnetic importance, it seems to me that this is such a case."

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After the hearing, Mr Crossley, 62, said the decision was fair. "I am upset that our marriage failed," he added. "Sadly, my wife is a career divorcée."

The couple wed in Barbados two years ago. They met on a blind date in June 2005 and were married seven months later. But they quickly found themselves to be incompatible and parted this year.

Mrs Sangster, who owns a four- bedroom flat worth about £6.5million in Belgravia, London, married Kevin Nicholson, whose family founded the Kwik Save supermarket chain, in her teens.

They divorced and she later married Peter Lilley, adopted son of Lilley and Skinner shoes chief Thomas Lilley. She had a daughter, Melissa, 26, with her husband.

Then came a romance with Robert Sangster, the racehorse owner and heir to Vernon Pools. She asked for a quick divorce from Mr Lilley in 1984, and married Mr Sangster the next year. They had two sons.

That marriage also ended in divorce and a £15million settlement for Mrs Sangster. But they remained close until his death from cancer in 2004.

The divorce hearing next year will evaluate the pre-nuptial agreement and whether it means her claims against her husband should be thrown out.

Mr Crossley's lawyers said the final decision should provide clarification on the degree to which pre-nuptial agreements are binding in the courts.

Lord Justice Thorpe said Mr Crossley was "locked in" a battle over the divorce settlement. Before the couple married, they employed "highly experienced lawyers" to write up a pre-nuptial agreement which allowed them to walk away with what they had taken into the marriage.

"This seems to me to be an entirely appropriate step for the parties to take."