BA pilot holds 'sickening' hostility towards his wife, says their divorce judge

After a bitter battle, Philip Vaughan came away £25,000 richer after winning a minor victory in a wrangle over the £900,000 former marital home.

But he left the Appeal Court accused of "serious financial and forensic misbehaviour" after the judge heard he gambled away more than £100,000 following the marriage breakdown.

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Lord Justice Wilson said that over 18 months after he split from his wife Lucienne, the 48-year-old pilot "recklessly dissipated2 the six-figure sum from his own assets "by gambling and other improvidence".

The traumatic marriage split led to a nervous breakdown and his "grounding" by BA but Mr Vaughan's behaviour, said the judge, was "bizarre and inexplicable and, objectively, profoundly irresponsible".

The dispute between the pair revolved around the matrimonial home in Stonor, near Henleyon-Thames, Oxfordshire.

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Mrs Vaughan still lives there but the property is for sale.

It was bought, mortgage free, by Mr Vaughan before the couple married in 1987.

The pilot argued it was unjust that his 47-year-old ex-wife had been awarded more than half its value.

A judge last year ordered the house be sold, with Mrs Vaughan to receive £425,000 from the proceeds and her ex-husband £160,000, with anything more split equally.

Another judge later increased her total share of the marital assets by another £25,000.

Mr Vaughan argued there should have been an equal division of the marital assets.

Lord Justice Wilson yesterday reversed the decision to increase Mrs Vaughan's share of the marital assets by £25,000.

But he said Mr Vaughan's conduct in the proceedings had been "warped by anger".

He added: "After making every allowance for his illness, the husband has been guilty of serious financial and forensic misbehaviour in the past two years.

His hostility towards the wife, which may be reciprocated, is of sickening intensity."