Banker who claimed imposter posed as him at his own wedding loses divorce court battle

An investment banker who claimed an imposter had impersonated him at his own wedding has lost a bitter divorce battle in court.

Former UBS employee Amit Goyal, 36, alleged his wife Ankita had “married another Amit Goyal”, and that far from being present when the vows were made, he was relaxing at home six hours’ journey away.

The high-flying couple, who lived in Canary Wharf and have a daughter aged six, first met on dating site Shaadi.com. They married in September 2003 in Meerut, India.

In divorce proceedings last year, Mr Goyal had claimed his wife, who worked as a headhunter, could neither divorce him, nor claim any financial support, because they were never married in the first place. But Judge Mark Everall QC granted Mrs Goyal, 33, a decree nisi and described her husband as an “unreliable” witness, ruling “there was a valid marriage”.

Mr Goyal challenged that at the Court of Appeal, pointing to a mysterious thumbprint on his marriage certificate and a lack of wedding photos in a bid prove himself a bachelor. He had previously told Judge Everall he was £300,000 in debt — despite earning £185,000-a-year plus bonuses, before he was made redundant. But his appeal has now been rejected.

The pair got engaged three days after they met, and a hastily-arranged wedding was fixed for the following month with the consent of Mrs Goyal’s father, a senior army officer.

At least year’s hearing Judge Everall said: “Mrs Goyal and her parents were happy to go along with the plan. Mr Goyal was a well-educated young man with evidently good prospects in the well-paid world of international finance.”

Mr Goyal had been accepted to study at a “prestigious” business school in Paris, and when he flew to New Delhi his fiancée’s family arranged a “short marriage ceremony” in advance of the full festivities, to speed along her application for a French visa.

However, the banker asserted that at the “mini-wedding” on September 15, 2003, at Hotel Samrat Heavens in Meerut, she married an imposter — and he had been six hours away in his hometown of Bathinda. He said this meant his subsequent full “marriage”, celebrated three days later, was invalid — even though the groom’s name on the wedding certificate for the previous ceremony matched his.

Judge Everall said: “His case is that she married another man ... Why should she do this on September 15 and then marry Mr Goyal on September 18?”

At the Appeal Court, Mr Goyal pointed to the lack of photos, saying: “Marriage is the one of the most sacred things in the Hindu religion. If you say to someone there is a marriage without photographs, it simply does not add up.” But he lost the case.