Breach of CAO

[StalkerEx]

My ex has breached the CAO; he hasn't returned the children.
I've been looking at legal enforcement - my understanding is that I can apply to court for enforcement. If enforcement is granted, he has to do community service if he breaches it again - but I'd need to go to take him back to family court again for this to happen.
Is this right? There's no power of arrest option for enforcement? So each time he refuses to hand the children back I just have to apply to the court, which involves several months' delay, and hope they tell him off?
Have I missed something?

You can apply to the court for a breach, they will investigate & “hear his side of the story” then make a decision. They have a few options available to them though it’s not just unpaid work, they can issue a fine, refer you both to mediation, and prison is possible (although unlikely).

Do you have your children back? What reason has he given for not returning them?

@Chocolateorange11 no. His reasons don't make sense.

I'm going to have to be litigant in person. Pretty nervous about this.

CAO aren’t worth the paper they are written on (sadly) and judges don’t tend to enforce them.

My DH has a contact order (which has been reviewed and taken back to court over the years). His EW has breached it many many times over the years.

When he has taken it to court for breaching she’s just got a slap on the wrist by a judge. Every single time - they seem reticent to do anything. All this you can do community service, be fined, imprisoned is never never actioned.

Once a judge did threaten to. remove the children from her for a very serious breach. On the way out of court she sniggered.

I hope you can sort it out.

That's what I think will happen @NorthernSpirit . ☹️
Was your DH represented? Or was he LiP?
The problem is, every time the court doesn't enforce the order, the person breaching it gets more confident that they won't be penalised, effectively encouraging them to breach it.

@NorthernSpirit what do you categorise as a very serious breach? Feel free to be vague with details, I'd just like an idea of what is considered serious.

This is absolutely spot on. They know nothing will ever happen so just do what they want.

When the judge threatened to remove the children from her (it was the 3rd time in a year she had been taken back to court for breaching the order).

She had agreed in writing that he the could take the children on holiday. He booked & paid for the holiday and gave the EW all of the details (4 months before the holiday). She was in agreement.

The night before the holiday he telephoned the kids and they said their cases were packed and they were excited.

He was due to pick them up at 7:30am the next morning.

At midnight she wrote dad an email saying he could ‘f@ck off’ and she had changed her mind and the kids weren’t going. He still went to the house at 7:30am (to beg her to let him take the kids) and she wasn’t there. She had taken the kids away herself.

This is just one of many many evil things she has done.

She would just stop contact if her demands were not met. One time she demanded he buy her a new car (they had been divorced over 10 years and a consent order agreed). When he refused, she stopped contact for about 2 months.

When he started the process of court for the contact order he did have a solicitor & barrister. After about £30k of fees he ran out of money and became LiP.

Good luck 🤞

☹️

He isn't going to get a fine or community service. He's just going to be told not to do it again.
Just get the urgent application in and prepare yourself for whatever stupid thing he decides to give as his reason for not returning the children.