Further Court Battles Likely for Forgers

When a millionaire estate agent died intestate, the two women he had been involved with both tried to have his estate distributed according to their wishes.

Chris John died leaving an estate worth £5 million. At the time of his death, he had been cohabiting for several years with Gillian Clemo. However, unknown to her, his divorce from his wife had never been finalised and he had never made a will.

What happened next turned tragedy into farce. Shortly after discovering that he had not finalised his divorce and was therefore still legally married to Mrs John, Ms Clemo claimed to have discovered a will. This left Mr John’s assets in trust for his daughter until she reached 27 years of age and would have allowed Ms Clemo to continue to live in the home the couple had occupied.

If the circumstances of the discovery of the will were not enough to create doubt, Mr John’s apparent failure to spell his daughter’s name correctly certainly was. An investigation into the will revealed it to be a fake. However, while the investigation was still ongoing, Mrs John forged a codicil to it. This was also exposed as a deception.

Ms Clemo was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay costs of £7,500. The lenient sentence was largely due to her prior good character. Mrs John was let off with a caution.

As Mr John died intestate, Mrs John stands to inherit all of her husband’s personal property and belongings, the first £250,000 of his estate and a life interest in half of the remainder.

The couple’s daughter stands to inherit one half of the value of the estate above £250,000 and the other half of the value of the estate above £250,000 when her mother dies.

However, Ms Clemo, as a person dependent on Mr John, can bring a claim for maintenance against the estate under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, so further court proceedings are likely.

See the DirectGov website for details of the intestacy rules.

Click here for a guide to how assets are divided in the event of a person dying intestate.

The contents of this article are intended for general information purposes only and shall not be deemed to be, or constitute legal advice. We cannot accept responsibility for any loss as a result of acts or omissions taken in respect of this article.