The court heard the background to the offence involved a highly complex and acrimonious series of legal battles over the ownership of a cottage and the former couple’s divorce.
Prosecutor Laura Marshall told Judge Richardson how Mr Teasdale, supported by the pair’s children, was still fighting the terms of the divorce settlement.
Ms Marshall said the current situation was that Mr Teasdale had been ordered to pay his wife £1.8m, with £800,000 already handed over.
The remaining £1m is overdue as Mr Teasdale and his family have lodged a series of challenges to the divorce ruling, she said.
Last year it emerged the family had run up legal costs of more than £1m in a court battle over the ownership of a cottage worth £245,000.
That case went all the way to the Court of Appeal when, in his ruling, Mr Justice Moor said: “I have to say that this is one of the most regrettable pieces of litigation that I have ever come across.”
Judge Richardson questioned whether the family’s wealth would be “almost, if not totally extinguished” by the legal actions.
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