Judge condemns former Miss Malaysia's divorce bill

A former beauty queen is seeking Britain's biggest ever divorce payout of £500 million and is running up 'eye-watering' legal costs to have the case heard in London

A senior judge has sharply criticised the “eye-watering” £1.6 million legal costs of Britain’s biggest divorce case involving one of Malaysia’s wealthiest men and his beauty queen wife.

Mr Justice Holman also questioned why the Malaysian couple, who pay no tax in this country, have been allowed to “squeeze out” more important cases while paying a fraction of the costs of the taxpayer-funded court hearings, according to reports.

Two of the country’s leading – and most expensive – divorce lawyers have built up massive legal costs despite no guarantee that the case will be heard in Britain, the High Court has heard.

Khoo Kay Peng, a Malaysian retail and hotel tycoon, has already spent £567,000 on legal costs in Britain on top of an unknown amount in his home country, where he wants the divorce to be heard, reports the Times.

He is represented by Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia, a Tory peer and solicitor whose previous divorce clients have included Diana, Princess of Wales, and Sir Paul McCartney.