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A two-timing millionaire whose wife caught him in bed with another woman got £120,000 from her after appealing a judge's shared ownership verdict.
Dr Chris Rowland, 65, bought Tadmarton House near Banbury in Oxfordshire twelve years ago for more than £1.5m, using it as a weekend retreat house to be shared with wife Sharon Blades.
But just months later Ms Blades caught the ex-City analyst in bed with another woman.
And when she found him for a second time in 2011, Ms Blades banned Chris from accessing the property with his second girlfriend by issuing a 'veto', a court heard.
That ban lasted six years, at which point Dr Rowland split up with his mistress.
A judge awarded Chris just under £60,000 to compensate for the lost time after being banned from the property.
He appealed that verdict, asking for £216,199 instead – and High Court judge Milwym Jarman raised the sum to £120,000.
Judge Jarman said Dr Rowland had been deprived of a "grand weekend and holiday home".
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In court Dr Rowland admitted seeing both women for several months and acknowledged he was "not proud of that fact".
But, he added: "I was emotionally attached to both women and each of them wanted me to choose between them, and I had real trouble making that choice."
Dr Rowland insisted he owned Tadmarton House alone since he paid the full price out of his own pocket.
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Yet the judge ruled it was to be owned jointly because the purchase was made with Dr Rowland and Ms Blades as joint tenants.
He explained: "In one sense the outcome is a harsh one for Dr Rowland who contributed the whole of the purchase price in acquiring a country house to be used as a weekend and holiday retreat by a couple who each had their own properties and who never saw fit to pool their resources."
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But to claim back money as lost rent was not right either, the judge concluded.
He said Ms Blades' attempt to reduce the fee to £36k was also rejected.
The judge added: "In my judgment, Dr Rowland's loss is the loss of a grand weekend and holiday home than rather than a holiday let.
"Many people stay somewhere else during the week for work purposes and return home for the weekend, and this is similar to what the parties intended when buying Tadmarton House."
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