Gascoigne v Gascoigne (1919) 1  KB 223  Court of Appeal

The claimant took a lease of land and built a house on it with his own money. He put the property in his wife's name, while retaining the beneficial interest, for the purpose of misleading, defeating, and delaying present or future creditors. He also refused to pay tax on the property on the grounds that it was his wife's property.  He brought an action seeking a declaration that his wife held the property on trust for him. 

held: 

He could not rebut the presumption of advancement in favour of his wife by relying upon his own illegality and fraud. It did not matter that she was aware of the fraud and benefited from it.

Lush LJ:

“he could not be allowed to set up his own fraudulent design as rebutting the presumption that the conveyance was intended as a gift to her, and that she was entitled to retain the property for her own use notwithstanding that she was a party to the fraud.”

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