Thousands of financially vulnerable spouses will no longer be able to provide evidence of their partner's hidden assets in divorce cases if the documents have been obtained without permission.
Previously those going through a divorce could make copies of any information they found which showed that their partner was lying about their finances, and use these documents in court. Now such actions are likely to result in heavy costs orders or criminal proceedings.
The turnaround follows a High Court case where two property tycoons were ordered to return financial documents which had been downloaded and copied from the computer they shared with their sister's multi-millionaire husband without his permission.
