Executor has stolen items from beneficiary

AmyTurtle

Hi all

What action can be taken if an executor has stolen items from the estate of my grandma? Story as follows - an awful lot more than this has actually happened including physical assaults on my mother by the executor and the executor broadcasting to all and sundry the financial details of what my mum was left!

The executor is my uncle - he was left the house, my mum was left all her monies after debts etc. had been settled plus the contents of her house. There are no other beneficiaries.
To cut a long story short, my uncle has already cheated my mum out of several thousand that was in my nan's bank account by submitting receipts for work he did to her house while she was in hospital - she definitely didn't ask him to carry out this work as she couldn't communicate by then. However we can't prove that and so my mum has had to reluctantly sign the accounts as she desperately needs the money and doesn't have the money to fight him through a solicitor. We checked and she can't get legal aid.

The second issue is that my nan had lots of valuable jewellery and several thousand in cash in her safe which only my uncle had a key to and she also owned a few small antiques and family photos. My uncle claims none of this ever existed, and returned my grandma's jewellery box to us full of plastic tat and shamballa stuff that clearly had belonged to his 13 year old stepdaughter, not my grandmother! I lived with her for 2 years until just prior to her death so I know what she had. I also had a valuable diamond ring in her safe which I have lost. We have repeatedly complained to him through his solicitor and all we got was a statement signed by my uncle's partner saying she had looked after the jewellery and she had definitely returned everything to my mum (which is false).

We have spoken to the Police twice and they say we have to go down the civil route first, but without money to pay a solicitor we have exhausted that route. The Police said unless we can provide receipts for everything that was taken the CPS wouldn't take it any further. We don't have receipts but we do have dated photos of some of the jewellery taken while my nan was in hospital (she never came out before she died) and her 2 siblings, 2 of her children, her daughter in law and several grandchildren all of whom could attest to the fact that she had this jewellery. 4 of us also saw her put the cash in the safe the day before she went in to hospital. They also stated that as he took a lot of the items before my nan died while she was in hospital only she would have been able to make a complaint of theft and obviously she can't.

It appears unless my nan had prior to her death given my mum a receipt for everything she ever owned there is nothing we can do about this, and was wondering if there is anything else anyone can suggest? My grandma was a comfortably off lady but my mum only got £150 from the house clearance man for what was left!

My mum is really struggling with the stress and injustice of all this and was already in poor health beforehand.

Thanks.

Crabapple

If you've already spoken to the police and they say there is nothing further they can do, you really do only have the civil route. I assume you have explained to the police what proof you do have that things were there.

You've got a lot of evidence with photos and potential witness statements. You could look to making an application in the small claims court but whether you'd have enough to succeed I think only a lawyer could advise.

Sorry. Death brings out the worst in people and it is an awful situation to be left (and disgusting behaviour by your uncle) but not that easy to solve.

Grumpypoo

Awful and disgusting. Unfortunately the best and worst can show in people at times like this. The cost of contesting can eat up a whole estate (even Charles Dickens wrote about it in Bleak house). You say she was left the contents of the house. Maybe she will just have to imagine that the house caught fire and was uninsured as basically it is the same outcome.


Maybe write a letter to the uncle along these lines


Dear X,


When our mother died she generously left the house to you and the contents of the house, cash and jewellery to me. I believe she saw this as an even split. She worked hard during her life and wanted us both to benefit from what she left behind. Let us honour her memory. Please return my share of the inheritance.


Your sister


Y.


Pretty much all you can do is appeal to his good nature, if he has a shred of decency left. Anything else would cost too much and you may in the end only be left with £150 after a lot of time and effort with courts and lawyers.

AmyTurtle

Thanks for your replies.
Crabapple - yes, we fully explained it to the Police, they were sympathetic but didn't seem very hopeful. Also, we have photos but obviously you can't value jewellery from a photo so the Police said we would struggle. We do also have suspicions about the will as my mum's name is spelled incorrectly throughout and my younger uncle was excluded entirely but it was the first will my nan had ever made and none of her children were financially dependent on her so we were advised by a solicitor we wouldn't have much hope of successfully contesting.

Grumpypoo - we have tried appealing to his better nature with a similar email via his solicitor but it appears he doesn't have one! He has also told us (through the solicitor) we are not to contact him directly. My grandma left just under 20k and my mum is only to get 8k after my uncle's 'deductions', whereas the house is worth 200k so it's not an even split at all. In fact now he's carried out all these improvements using my nan's cash it's probably worth even more!

To be honest I suspect all the jewellery has been sold for scrap and melted down by now. We have found out since all this happened that my uncle's partner had a grandmother who died a few months before mine and she did her own family over in a similar manner so her mum and aunties etc. got nothing from their mum either.

I just keep telling my mum what goes around comes around! x