A former Miss Malaysia who may win a divorce payout of as much as £500 million – which would be the largest on record in Britain began an attempt the other day to have her case heard in London.
   Pauline Chai is embroiled in a battle over where the divorce proceedings from her husband, Khoo Kay Peng, one of Malaysia’s wealthiest businessmen, will be heard.
   The mother of five, who was married to Dr Khoo for 42 years, has already issued a divorce petition in England. The couple have a £30 million home in Hertfordshire.
   He wants the hearing to be in Malaysia, where he would not be liable to pay out 50 per cent of his wealth, as is likely in London. Ms Chai filed for divorce in February after moving to England in October last year.
   She now wants to lodge a second divorce petition that will show ‘beyond doubt” that she has been in the country for at least six months, as required by law.
   The move was criticised by lawyers for her husband in the High Court in London the other day as a “radical departure” that would enhance ‘the ill-gotten reputation of this country for being the divorce capital of the world”. People could come to England for three months, issue a “spurious” divorce petition and then, later, when they had built up residency time in the UK, issue another one, Tim Bishop, QC, said.
   Ms Chai’s counsel, Richard Todd, QC, told the judge, Mr Justice Coleridge, that such a move was permitted by the rules. “She is not seeking to have her cake and eat it; she is seeking two cakes — something which the rules expressly allow.”
   Mr Todd accused Dr Khoo of ‘indulging in a naked filibuster”. He added that lawyers for Dr Khoo had suggested that the Attorney-General might need to be involved, as the seeking of a second divorce petition raised issues of public policy.
   “That would be a ludicrous piece of time-wasting,” Mr Todd said, adding that he half-expected Dr Khoo to request the involvement of “the Attorney-General, the Witchfinder-General and for good measure, let’s call Ghost-busters”. He said: “It is quite wrong for the husband to clothe his argument in the robes of some great public policy issue, when it is nothing more than old-fashioned grubby desire to be in the jurisdiction where he thinks he can do better.”
   Mr Bishop said that, from tomorrow, Dr Khoo would be in the same position as his wife. He would be able to issue a petition for divorce in the Malaysian courts, as the three-month “reconciliation period” required there under the law would have elapsed. He said that it would be an “absolutely extraordinary” step for the High Court in Britain to grant leave for a second petition which would amount to a ‘revolution in relation to jurisdictional disputes and against public policy”.
   It would enable divorcing spouses to lodge one petition “to put a foot in the door” and then a second or third “to establish more clearly jurisdiction”.
   Mr Justice Coleridge said that he was not prepared to make an immediate decision and the case was adjourned for a fuller hearing.
   The couple has lived a lavish lifestyle with staffed properties in England, Kuala Lumpur and Canada. Dr Khoo also has two oceanfront penthouses in Australia.
   In 1998 they bought a 1,000-acre estate in Hertfordshire which became the family home, complete with an exotic menagerie, including alpacas and llamas, and two lakes, each constructed for £60,000.
   Dr Khoo, 74, is the chairman of Malaysia United Industries, an investment company with extensive global business interests in which he has a stake valued at almost £60 million. He has a personal interest in Laura Ashley, with a further 26 per cent of the company, via Bonham Industries Ltd, that is estimated to be worth over £50 million, He is also a director of Gurus Hotels Limited, which owns ten hotels in Britain, including the opulent Gurus Hyde Park.  –The Times