THE eighth-richest man in the City of London is being sued for a share of a £110 million fortune by his estranged wife.

The 27-year marriage of John Charman, a star of the Lloyd’s insurance market, and his wife, Beverley, 52, ended when he went to Bermuda and told her that he would not be coming home.

Details of their protracted divorce struggle surfaced as Mr Charman, 53, brought his case to the Court of Appeal, where hearings are public. He is trying to prevent his wife from gaining access to details of a Bermuda trust which she says is worth £64 million and may affect their settlement.

Mr Charman has made an offer consisting of the family home, Dell House, at Sevenoaks, Kent, and £6 million.

Mr Charman is a high-flyer known for his drive and ambition and his glittering career has made him the target of some envy in the City. His Axis organisation, based in Bermuda, was set up to cash in on the crisis in insurance after the attacks on America on September 11, 2001.

He later became embroiled in a “sexism-in-the-City” row with a former employee. A senior underwriter reached an out-of-court settlement with Charman Underwriting Agencies after she claimed to have lost £1.5 million in share options when she took maternity leave.

Jane Hayes initially lost her claim but appealed against the ruling. Mr Charman, her managing director, was said to have excluded her from a meeting, saying: “Don’t worry yourself because we are discussing something we decided when you were off having babies.”

He told a tribunal that her portion of the share options was decided because of her “unexceptional performance” and had nothing to do with her being a mother.

His house has also attracted disapproval. A neighbour, Sir Clive Thompson, the former chairman of Rentokil, wrote to a Commons committee complaining that Dell House and grounds were so brightly lit it disturbed owls.

Evidence yesterday went back to the start of the couple’s relationship. Mrs Charman said they met as teenagers in 1970 and married six years later.

Mr Charman became an underwriter at Lloyd’s, going on to form Charman Underwriting Agencies in 1986. He set up Dragon Holdings, the family trust at the centre of the wrangle, a year later with initial funds of £10,000. Trust assets were switched from Jersey to Bermuda in 2002.

The marriage foundered in 2003 when he told his wife he was a tax exile living in Bermuda and negotiations to buy a house in England fell through.

Mr Charman has since bought a condominium in Palm Beach, Florida.

All the hearings, in the High Court Family Division in England, and in Bermuda, had been in private until yesterday.

Mr Charman is objecting to an order by Mr Justice Coleridge for letters of request to the Bermudan courts for information on Dragon Holdings. He claims that it is a dynastic trust being administered in Bermuda for the benefit of future generations of Charmans and cannot be taken into account in a divorce settlement.

Barry Singleton, QC, for Mr Charman, told the court that Mrs Charman had wrongly alleged that the trust was a “sham”. He said the request to Bermuda was impermissible because it did not relate to any particular documents but was part of the wife’s campaign to prove the trust was a marital asset. He claimed she was on “a fishing expedition”.

Martin Pointer, QC, for Mrs Charman, said that she was entitled to the information to weigh up her options in divorce settlement talks.

The President of the Family Division, Sir Mark Potter, Lord Justice Lloyd and Lord Justice Wilson reserved their decision.

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