How Scotland's financial domestic abusers are still getting away with it
Abuse without bruises is still abuse, writes Kevin McGillivray
A survivor once told me she wished her ex-partner had beaten her black and blue. If he had, she said, he would likely have gone to prison. Instead, he took more than £600,000 of her inheritance.
Later, he falsely claimed in court that the money had been his and was awarded another £450,000. His declared income was less than £10,000 a year. When this was reported, no one was charged. It was described as a civil matter.
In another case, a man stopped paying his share of the mortgage after his former partner refused to hand over their home. She was already repaying debts he had run up in her name. Overnight, she found herself unable to cover basic outgoings. Again, she was told it was civil.
A groundbreaking new law?
In 2019, Scotland introduced the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act, which was hailed as groundbreaking. At the time, Assistant Chief Constable Gillian MacDonald said it was a clear warning that all forms of domestic abuse are criminal and that perpetrators should expect to face the full consequences of their behaviour.
The law was designed to recognise coercive control – patterns of behaviour that trap someone through fear, isolation or financial dependence. It acknowledged what survivors have long known: abuse is not only physical.
Yet when the control takes the form of financial threats – stopping agreed payments, creating debt, and withdrawing support for children to force compliance – it is still routinely dismissed as private dispute.
Just this week, a woman contacted me in distress because her former husband was threatening to stop paying his share of school fees for their child with additional needs.
She had finally rebuilt her life after divorce. She had saved to renovate her kitchen. Now she was cancelling the work because she feared being forced to shoulder the full cost alone.
That threat changed her behaviour. It restricted her choices. It created fear and instability. But if she reports it, experience suggests she will be told the same thing: it’s a civil matter.
Bankruptcy used to avoid making payments
A few weeks ago, the Scottish Parliament’s Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee closed my petition (PE2192), which sought to prevent abusers from using bankruptcy as a shield to escape court-ordered repayments to victims.
One MSP stated that the Scottish Government believes there are sufficient safeguards to prevent bankruptcy being used fraudulently in this way. On paper, perhaps.
In reality, I have seen a survivor win a substantial court award, only for her former partner to declare bankruptcy immediately afterwards. The effect was to wipe away her remedy unless she could afford yet another legal battle.
The system appears robust in theory. In practice, it often leaves victims fighting alone.
When Police Scotland said in 2019 that all forms of domestic abuse are criminal, many believed it marked a turning point. Seven years on, survivors of financial abuse are still being told their cases are “civil”.
If the promise of that legislation is to mean anything, Scotland must recognise that abuse without bruises is still abuse – and treat it accordingly.
Kevin McGillivray is a trustee of charity Financial Domestic Abuse Scotland