Suspected theft from grandmothers estate

gayleth

So.. this is a long shot.. We have a witness who states that Five years ago when my grandmother passed away a family member (who was one of two executors)  entered my grandmother’s home and took £20,00 cash and destroyed a loan agreement for another £20,000. This £40,000 was never mention in the estate balance. Neither were an item of jewellery and an antique That we’re also taken. 

This is devastating but has not come as a surprise due to the family members character and clearly the witness has his own agenda as to why it was not brought to our attention five years ago. 

We have no proof other than this witness statement so my question is, has anyone been through a situation like this if so what did you do? 

Marcon

gayleth said:

So.. this is a long shot.. We have a witness who states that Five years ago when my grandmother passed away a family member (who was one of two executors)  entered my grandmother’s home and took £20,00 cash and destroyed a loan agreement for another £20,000. This £40,000 was never mention in the estate balance. Neither were an item of jewellery and an antique That we’re also taken. 

This is devastating but has not come as a surprise due to the family members character and clearly the witness has his own agenda as to why it was not brought to our attention five years ago. 

We have no proof other than this witness statement so my question is, has anyone been through a situation like this if so what did you do? 

As you say, clearly a witness with his own agenda. Has he explained that agenda to your satisfaction? Why would you believe anything he says? Why would you believe your grandmother had a  nice round bundle of notes totalling £20,000 conveniently sitting around waiting to be nicked? 

This isn't so much a long shot as a total blank, I fear. 

gayleth

We do believe the money was in my grandmothers house because we found more when we sorted her things. There questions that should have been asked at the time but losing a relative is so painful you don’t always think straight. 

Dox

gayleth said:

We do believe the money was in my grandmothers house because we found more when we sorted her things. There questions that should have been asked at the time but losing a relative is so painful you don’t always think straight. 

Far too late now to do anything unless this famous 'witness' can come up with concrete proof - and a good story as to why he's only telling you this now. Sounds like mischief making more than anything else.

Robert_McGeddon

Who was the 2nd executor?  Is there a copy of the loan note?  Can you identify from bank records the loan being paid out and subsequently being satisfied.

The two executors have joint responsibility for gathering in the estate assets and distributing them according to the will. How could the 2nd executor have reasonably missed £40,000 of assets? Collusion? Incompetence? Have you asked him/her?  Was Grandma known to keep upwards of £20K at home - if so, why wasn't the 2nd executor suspicious of finding nothing at the time?

The passage of time hides the truth. Unless something major surfaces I suspect you're too late.

sharpe106

Even if the witness is being truthful and you trust them 100% (which you don't), unless they actually have proof, i.e. a copy of the original loan agreement what can you do after this time?

Malthusian

gayleth said:

We do believe the money was in my grandmothers house because we found more when we sorted her things. There questions that should have been asked at the time but losing a relative is so painful you don’t always think straight. 

Ok, so I've broken into my relative's home. With a witness who may five years later decide to blab on me. In front of this witness I take a loan agreement and destroy it (which could easily achieve nothing except create more rope to hang me with if anyone had bothered to take five seconds to copy it). Then I steal an antique and an item of jewellery. Then I move on to my grandmother's giant pile of cash. And, in front of my witness, carefully count out 20 grand.

Why not steal the rest of the cash as well? Apparently I've never heard the phrase "may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, especially if you're going to invite a witness round to your deceased's relative's house just so they can watch you steal said lamb".

Your witness is talking gibberish.