Ex-partner of former Caley Thistle chairman loses legal claim

Julie Zelent, 51, attempted to sue her ex-partner for loss of earnings has lost her claim for £219,000.

She claimed to have been at an “economic disadvantage” after reportedly leaving her £54,000-a-year IT job at Royal Bank of Scotland to move in with him in Inverness.

Mrs Zelent was reportedly offered a job by Mr Savage, 61, at his company.

The pair met on a flight in June 2006 and moved in together in September that year, which lasted for about 12 months.

They continued to see each other and lived together again between February and October 2008, when the relationship ended permanently.

Mrs Zelent tried to sue Mr Savage for loss of income/earning capacity; loss of pension rights and for financial contributions she had allegedly made to his house.

Mrs Zelent’s original claim of £500,000 was reduced to £219,500.25.

However, at Inverness Sheriff court today, Sheriff Margaret Neilson ruled that she was not entitled to payment of a capital sum, as she had “sustained no economic disadvantage in the interests of the defender” and Mr Savage had “derived no economic advantage from financial or non financial contributions of the pursuer”.

Sheriff Neilson said Mrs Zelent, who now lives in the US with her husband Michael McSwain, was “lacking in any credibility whatsoever”.

In her written opinion, published on the Scottish Court Service website, she said it was “rare indeed for a court to be put in the position where it has to disregard so much of the evidence of a party to an action”.

Mrs Zelent’s new partner Mr McSwain, whom she married in October 2009, is a former US Marine who receives a Marine Corps pension. He is also employed as a police officer. The couple live in North Carolina.