Daughter Jailed for using DIY Will Kit to forge her dying Mother's Will

By Alan Porter of The Will Centre.

Doing your own Will is often fraught with difficulties but as the following shows there are greater dangers than just not doing it right . . .

"A DAUGHTER has been jailed for forging her dying mother's Will to cheat her family. The woman was in line to get a quarter of her mother's £70,000 estate, sharing it equally with her three step-siblings.

Instead she ignored her mother's last wishes, invented a second will making herself the executor and decided to give her step brother and step sisters £2,000 each and keep the rest for herself. With her mother dying of cancer in Hospital and unable to move let alone write her name, she forged a cheque and took £8,000 from her mother's bank account. She made plans to transfer the remaining £7,000 in the account into her own name and contacted an estate agent to sell her mother's home.

Her mother died three days later, aged 79, unaware of how her daughter had defied her. The
woman used the £8,000 cheque she had forged to pay off her step-siblings, telling them in letters that her mother had written a new Will and she was the major beneficiary. But they questioned the new Will with a solicitor and the police, and the scam began to unravel.

A handwriting expert found that the signature on the cheque had been forged. The deception was carried out with a £9.99 Will kit bought from W H Smith.

Despite repeated denials of wrongdoing before the trial she pleaded guilty to obtaining a money
transfer by deception, using a false instrument and making a false statement on oath."

Don’t leave things to chance. A Will is probably the most important document you will ever make so do it properly. Call us on 01752-607040. We offer a FREE review service for Home Made or DIY Wills.