Family Overturns Will That Benefits Carer

Elderly people can become suggestible and it is, regrettably, not uncommon for avaricious people to attempt to influence them for personal gain.

In a recent case in point, an elderly and wheelchair-bound lady altered her will a few months before she died so as to bequeath her £400,000 estate to the son of her carer. Her previous will had left her entire estate to her family.

The family contested the new will, claiming that the woman had fallen under the influence of her carer and was too mentally infirm to resist her.

In addition, more than £400,000 had been withdrawn from the woman’s bank account in the three years prior to her death. The evidence of undue influence was sufficient for the judge to rule that the woman’s earlier will, made in 2002, should stand. In addition, it is understood that following a police investigation into the depletion of the woman’s assets in the final few years of her life, papers have been passed to the Crown Prosecution Service.