Inheritance theft

rtheylegit

A relative passed away 3 years ago and left the will to 4 beneficiaries including 2 siblings and 2 children. The executor was related to one of the siblings and was eventually stripped of his status as executor for not providing statement of accounts and for non-distribution of funds. When payment was made it was paid from several different relative accounts. We believe the full amount has not been paid. Do we have a case for prosecution?

sammyjammy

Do you have evidence rather than just believe it to be so?  It'll be costly and even if you win do they have the funds to repay?  

Keep_pedalling

Who administered the estate after you got the executor removed? Have they provided a set of estate accounts?

If you have no proof that estate assets have been misappropriated you are on a hiding to nothing here. 

rtheylegit

The childrens solicitor is handling their case. Although they have had some inheritance it has come from 3 different bank accounts. Despite several requests from solicitor they have not provided a statement of the estates account.

GDB2222

I don’t think that the police would be interested, as they would regard it as a civil dispute. Besides that, it’s not clear whether there’s been any theft, or whether the executor was just thoroughly disorganised, rather than dishonest. 

Spendless

Is the money coming from 3 diff accounts relevant? When my Nan died my Mum (sole executor) initially had her money moved into her and my Dad's joint account. Then she started stressing that Nan's money and things still to be paid out from it was getting mixed up with their household bills. That's when they opened another account solely for 'Nan's money' to be in. Without doing that, the money could have well been here there and everywhere and everyone's inheritance (3 beneficaries) paid from a diff account.

What evidence do you have that the full amount hasn't been paid? Whilst I believe the executor has to provide  the estate accounts if asked, I've no idea what consequence there is for non compliance.

rtheylegit

First of all the money was paid from different accounts, 1 from his sisters, 1 from his brothers and the other from their business account. The estate was worth a lot more than the actual inheritance paid and despite repeated request for evidence (statement of accounts) they will not provide this. They have given ad-hoc statements which show that money was being paid to an oversees account. The executor paid the first beneficiary in 3 separate transactions over a year ago and the children only received theirs a month ago. He went missing when he was supposed to show up in court regarding stepping down from executor but did attend the second hearing where he was asked to step down for not providing a full set of accounts. 

DancingBadger

More information needed, I think.  

Were the bequests made in the will for specific amounts, e.g., "I leave the sum of £5000 to John Smith"?

Usually only residual beneficiaries are entitled to see the estate accounts.  

Spendless

Ok so the 3 diff accounts were actually 3 diff people's accounts. I know this sounds perdantic but in order for people to give the best advice all info/detail is likely to be needed.

Money was being paid to an overseas account by whom? Do you mean the deceased before they died? Might it be possible that money is still held up there? 

As prev asked who became executor after 1st one was stripped? 

user1977

What good would a prosecution do anyone? Would you not simply be satisfied with recovering the money (if you can prove anything is missing). 

GDB2222

user1977 said:

What good would a prosecution do anyone? Would you not simply be satisfied with recovering the money (if you can prove anything is missing). 

I suspect the OP is hoping that they go along to the police, who will investigate, and recover the allegedly missing money. The trouble is that the police would require more evidence of a crime before they do anything, and they may not recover anything. . 

If money really is missing, it's not obvious that the OP's best solution is for whoever is responsible to be tried and punished. What they want is for that person to be earning as much as possible, so they can make good the losses, not languishing in jail or doing hundreds of hours of unpaid community service.