An aircraft tycoon hired a private detective to plant a secret recording device in his eight-year-old son’s school bag so he could spy on his ex-wife.
Clive Joy-Morancho, 59, tried to use the covert recordings in the bitter six-year battle to protect his £69million fortune from her.
Nichola Joy, 50, has now made a criminal complaint for breach of privacy, which carries a maximum sentence of a year in prison or a £40,000 fine.
She said: ‘It’s saddening and devastating. It breaks my heart. The children see what their father is doing to their mother, and they are suffering.’
The pair, who have three children now aged seven, 10 and 12, split up in 2011 following a five-year marriage.
Ever since, they have been fighting an acrimonious divorce battle over the money he made leasing aircraft. British-born Mrs Joy is demanding a £27million share in assets including at least two London homes, a charter plane, a six-bedroom French chateau, a Caribbean villa and a land in a Swiss ski village.
Many of Mr Joy-Morancho’s assets are tied up in an offshore trust – revealed in the Panama Papers leak – to which he claims he does not have access.
Read Also:
A judge ruled in 2015 that his £20million classic car collection, made up of 35 cars including a McLaren F1 and McLaren P1, is protected by the trust.
Mr Joy-Morancho has taken part in classic car races at the Goodwood circuit in West Sussex and at Spa in Belgium.
Nichola Joy said she was devastated and has made a criminal complaint for breach of privacy
Photographs show him driving cars including a Ferrari 250 LM worth up to £10.6million, a vintage Porsche 911 with the numberplate ‘911 Joy’ and a 1955 Jaguar D-type.
In June last year a judge in the Court of Appeal upheld a ruling to award Mrs Joy £120,000 per year in maintenance and £340,000 in legal fees.
Mr Joy-Morancho, who was born in Zimbabwe, has claimed he will suffer financial ruin if he is forced to meet his ex-wife’s demands.
Mrs Joy’s lawyer, Ronald Sokol, said: ‘Nikki’s main concern is her three children. She is appalled at how their father uses them as a means of putting pressure on her.
