KING'S BENCH DIVISION
MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS LIST
Royal Courts of Justice Strand, London WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
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(1) TITAN WEALTH HOLDINGS LIMITED (2) TITAN SETTLEMENT & CUSTODY LIMITED (formerly known as Global Prime Partners Limited) (3) GRETCHEN ROBERTS (4) TIFFANY ROBERTS |
Claimants |
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- and – |
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MARIAN ATINUKE OKUNOLA |
Defendant |
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2nd Floor, Quality House, 6-9 Quality Court, Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1HP.
Telephone No: 020 7067 2900. DX 410 LDE
Email: info@martenwalshcherer.com
Web: www.martenwalshcherer.com
THE DEFENDANT appeared in person.
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Crown Copyright ©
MR JUSTICE KERR:
Introduction
"The terms will be, first, that Ms Okunola complies in all respects with the order of Freedman J. Secondly, in particular, that she now complies, and I will set a date which I will discuss in just a moment, with the obligation in paragraph 3 to deliver up relevant documents. That must be done very shortly. Thirdly, that she now provides a disclosure statement which is true and which lists all relevant documents in accordance with paragraph 4 of Freedman J's order."
Background and Trial
The Contempt Proceedings
"a. The Defendant shall comply with the INTERIM INJUNCTIONS section of the 23 May Order, for as long as that order remains in force;
b. The Defendant shall, by 4pm on 28 June 2024:
i. deliver up any Relevant Document (as defined in the 5 April Order) which remains in her possession or to which she has access or a right to possession, such delivery up to be effected by:
1. in the case of any Relevant Document held in paper form, by delivering them to the Claimants' solicitors (Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan UK LLP) FAO Yasseen Gailani, [address given]; and
2. in the case of any Relevant Document held in electronic form, by providing an electronic copy of the Relevant Document to the Claimants' solicitors at the email address [address given]
(the Delivery Up Obligation).
ii. make and serve on the Claimants' solicitors a witness statement in the proceedings verified by a statement of truth and/or an affidavit sworn by the Defendant:
1. confirming the Defendant's compliance with the Delivery Up Obligation;
2. verifying, subject to inspection, that the Defendant does not have in her power, possession, custody or control any hard copies of Relevant Documents;
3. identifying what, if any, soft copies of Relevant Documents the Defendant retains, and where and how the same are retained (whether on personal computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, hard drives, servers, email accounts, cloud storage, or stored in some other way)."
"If the Defendant does not comply with the Suspension Conditions, the Claimants shall have liberty to apply for the prison sentence to be activated."
"a. Indirectly harassing the Third and Fourth Claimants, in violation of paragraph 4 of the INTERIM INJUNCTIONS section of the 23 May Order,
b. making a false disclosure statement, in violation of paragraph 1(b)(ii) of the 21 June Order, and
c. failing to comply with a request for irretrievable deletion of documents, in violation of paragraph 3 of the INTERIM INJUNCTIONS section of the 23 May Order."
Findings of Fact
".... not agree with Chamberlain J's judgment in contemplating .... for indirect harassment and delivery up of documents that were given to me and your clients have copies [but] "would not challenge it because [her] sentence was suspended."
[after hearing brief arguments on the question of sanction]
Sanction
"The relevant principles are set out in Liverpool Victoria Insurance Company Co. Ltd v Khan [2019] EWCA Civ 392, [2019] 1WLR 3833, reiterated by the Supreme Court in Attorney-General v Crosland [2021] 4 WLR 103. The general approach is to follow the approach of the Sentencing Guidelines and, in particular, to consider the same factors that they do, namely culpability, harm, aggravating factors, mitigating factors, whether a fine is appropriate or whether the custody threshold has been passed, and, if custody is appropriate, whether the sentence could be suspended. I consider those matters in that order."