Fed up with 'greedy' wife, man gives all money to charity

Sweet revenge

After selling their house for $395,000, the 58-year-old man gave every cent to charities, and he also boasted that he put all his bank statements in a bucket of water and made papier-mache out of them.

The man told the Federal Magistrates’ Court, sitting in Victoria, that he bought hundreds of envelopes and posted all the money.He said he was now jobless, with $2000 in the bank, a $1000 car, and land worth $10,000.

Magistrate Norah Hartnett concluded the man had taken the drastic action to deprive his wife of any money after 20 years of marriage. The $395,000 was the couple’s windfall from the sale of their family home, which went under the hammer before they split. After their relationship broke down, the woman went to court because she was concerned about what had happened to their cash.

By the time the case got to court, the husband revealed in an affidavit that he had disposed of it all.

“I did it in an emotional way as I saw the greed of money destroying our marriage,” the Daily Telegraph quoted him as writing in a submission to the court.

The man also disclaimed his interest in his dead mother’s estate, and said he gave the money away anonymously to “eliminate the cause of the divorce”.

The man told the court he gave the money to charities, including Unicef, Oxfam, the Sacred Heart Mission, the Royal Children’s Hospital, the RSPCA, the Red Cross, the Brotherhood of St Laurence and Help Haiti.

“I have formed a view that the wife’s main concern was the division of family assets,” he said. “I felt that as a good Christian I ought to remove temptation and greed from both of us,” he stated.

The wife said he was violent to her and their children. Hartnett ordered the man be placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond for breaching court orders to produce documents relating to the sale of the home.

In an interim judgment, Hartnett also ordered that a family report be compiled to reach a resolution in the case.