Committal for Contempt of Court in Open Court at Business and Property Courts of England and Wales, Chancery Division
Pursuant to paragraph 13 of Practice Direction: Committal for Contempt of Court – Open Court dated 26 March 2015
In relation to claim no. BL-2019-001388, on 15 July 2020 at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, the Hon. Mr Justice Miles sentenced Eilish Elizabeth Adams to 8 months imprisonment for contempt of Court.
The basis of the sentence was that Ms Adams had committed twenty breaches of orders of the Court as follows: (i) seven breaches of paras 6 and 7 of the order of Mr Justice Barling of 30 July 2019; (ii) one breach of paras 4 and 5 of the order of Mr Justice Arnold of 9 September 2019; (iii) seven breaches of paras 7, 9(d), 12, 13, 15 and 16 of the order of Mr Justice Nugee of 8 October 2019; (iv) three breaches of para 3 of the order of Mr Justice Trower of 22 October 2019; and (v) two breaches of paras 2 and 3 of the order of Mr Justice Trower of 12 December 2019.
Those orders required Ms Adams to disclose the identity of holders of specified bank and other accounts; to inform the claimants (and confirm on affidavit) what had become of certain specified assets; not to deal with her own assets; and to provide information (confirmed on affidavit) about her own assets. Ms Adams breached the orders by (a) failing to comply with deadlines in the orders for the provision of information and affidavits about the specified assets and her own assets; (b) providing (belatedly) information about the specified assets and her own assets which was incomplete, inadequate and in some cases false; and (c) improperly dealing with her own assets contrary to the prohibition on dealings.
The Court found that the twenty counts of breach were proved.
The Court imposed a sentence of 8 months in respect of all breaches.