Wealthy woman sues husband for age discrmination

Eleanor Belson, a wealthy accountant, sued her husband, Tim Belson, for age discrimination, mistakenly believing that he left her for a younger woman. Eleanor, who was 60 at the time, claimed that Tim, who was 72, discriminated against her by ending their marriage and making her redundant from his jewelry business in Hatton Garden, London, where she worked as a bookkeeper.

Their divorce proceedings revealed the acrimonious nature of their separation.

However, Eleanor's claims were dismissed by an employment tribunal, which ruled that she was the one who left the marriage and that Tim's new partner was actually older than her, at 63. Despite this, Eleanor did win a claim of unfair dismissal, and she is set to receive compensation from the company.

Tim Belson, a former Olympian in the 1976 Games and a member of the British Fencing team from 1971 to 1981, married Eleanor in 2009. They resided in a penthouse apartment worth £1.2 million in Wapping, east London. However, their relationship began to deteriorate in early 2021, with Tim alleging that Eleanor had an affair with their elderly neighbor, referred to as Mr. Y, during a holiday in Antigua.

Tim Belson claimed in the tribunal that Mr. Y had amended his will to leave Eleanor £1 million and that she had made an unsigned revision to her will, leaving all her property to Mr. Y. Eleanor dismissed these accusations, stating that Mr. Y was "83, old, and gay." Tim responded by saying that Mr. Y was only 76 and in good health, and that they had been seen shopping together at a supermarket.

The tribunal heard that in the summer of 2021, Eleanor and Mr. Y purchased a flat together in the same apartment building, near Eleanor and Tim's marital home. Tim was unaware of this purchase, and discussions about Eleanor's exit from the company and divorce proceedings began at work. Eleanor believed that Tim was motivated to remove her from the business because he had found a new love interest, Julie Lawn, whom she perceived as a younger woman, even though Julie was actually older than Eleanor.

In 2022, when Tim discovered Eleanor's property purchase with Mr. Y, he immediately fired her from the company. Tim believed that this substantially changed the terms of their divorce settlement, thinking that Eleanor owed him hundreds of thousands of pounds instead of him owing her £150,000. The tribunal ruled that this amounted to unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal, and Eleanor was entitled to five weeks' notice pay.

Despite winning the claim of unfair dismissal, Eleanor's claims of age, disability, and marital status discrimination, as well as whistleblowing detriments, all failed. The judge stated that there was no evidence to support the claim that Tim was motivated by Eleanor's age since his new girlfriend was older than her. Additionally, the tribunal concluded that it was Eleanor who had left the marital relationship. Eleanor will receive compensation for unfair dismissal at a later date.