10:56am Tuesday 10th August 2004
By Bede MacGowan
A RETIRED greengrocer has slammed the courts for handing his sister's inheritance to her husband despite ruling he forged her will a month before she died.
Under the December 1998 will, Mary Taylor left nearly all her £330,000 estate to her second husband Peter, formerly of Bartholomew's Close, Sydenham.
Last week at the High Court her brother John Paul, 68, of Farnaby Road, Bromley, succeeded in his bid to prove the will was a fake.
After evidence from handwriting expert Robert Radley, Judge Thomas Hegarty ruled the signature was not authentic and named Mr Taylor, now of Surrey, as the person responsible.
He also found the two elderly witnesses to the document did not go to the Taylors' home as Mr Taylor claimed, concluding it most likely he took the will to their house already signed.
The finding means the 69-year-old pensioner, who succumbed to cancer in January 1999, died intestate (without a will) because a previous will, burnt by Mr Taylor, was ruled invalid by the judge.
Under intestacy law, if there are no children, the surviving spouse receives the first £200,000 and half of whatever remains.
Mr Paul said: "The law is an ass. It's unbelievable he will end up with the money after it was proved he forged the will.
"I had a quest to seek justice for my sister. I'm pleased with what we've achieved but we're only half way there.
"Mr Taylor is an evil man who has exploited my sister when she was at her most vulnerable on her death bed dying of cancer.
"Forgery for such a large amount of money is a serious criminal matter and I hope Mr Taylor is punished severely by the courts with a long prison sentence."
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