Nigerian Oil tycoon loses £17.5m divorce battle (Video)

Nigerian oil tycoon - Michael Prest has lost the legal battle with his former wife - Yasmin over a £17.5m divorce settlement.

Seven judges at the Supreme Court in England unanimously agreed that  Michael Prest must transfer properties held by firms owned and controlled by him to his ex-wife as part of a divorce award.

An earlier Court of Appeal decision last October, ruled that a High Court judge had earlier wrongly ordered Mr Prest to transfer properties, worth millions of pounds and held in the names of companies he controlled, to Mrs Prest.

It is this Appeal Court ruling that the Supreme Court - the highest court in the UK, has overturned.

Mr Prest, Founder of Nigerian energy company Petrodel Resources, claimed to be worth about £48m. However, Mrs Prest said he was worth much more than that - "tens if not hundreds of millions" of pounds.

After the ruling, Mrs Prest said: "None of this would have been necessary if Michael had been sensible and played fair."

Judges heard the couple - in their early 50s - married in 1993, spent most of their time in London, had properties in Nigeria and the Caribbean and lived to a "very high standard."

Lawyers said the new ruling could have significant implications for divorcing couples.

The challenge concerned the position of a number of companies belonging to the Petrodel Group which are "wholly owned and controlled" by Mr Prest. One of the companies is the legal owner of five residential properties in the UK and another is the legal owner of two more.

The question the Supreme Court had to tackle was whether the court had power to order the transfer of the seven properties to Mrs Prest, given that they legally belonged to his companies, not him.

Allowing Mrs Prest's appeal, the court declared that the seven disputed properties vested in the companies were ones that Mr Prest was "entitled, either in possession or in reversion."

Mr Prest was not in court to hear the judgement being delivered.