A conman who took advantage of a newspaper article searching for relatives of a deceased man, has been sentenced to jail for more than three years, after he and an accomplice created a fraudulent will.

The deceased was a Lithuanian national who was described as having lived a “fairly solitary existence”.  A notice was put into local and national press, asking any surviving relatives to come forward and make a claim on the estate and a genealogy company had identified a living nephew in Lithuania.

In the meantime however, a second gentleman had attended the probate registry in Cardiff, along with what appeared to be a genuine will belonging to the deceased, and signed by the accused.  All assets were duly granted to this man.

Subsequently, it came to light that the two men had carried out another similar fraudulent act regarding an estate around the same time, which alerted the authorities.  Both cases had originally netted them a total of £150,000 before judgement was passed.

Tony Crocker