Scrap mogul’s daughter gets £12m– as son is left with a 90-year-old lorry
THE daughter of a multimillionaire scrapyard owner is set to inherit her father’s £12million fortune after a fierce court battle that left her brother with just a 90year-old lorry.
Fred McGuinness, 64, left everything he owned to his wife Edith when he died in 1987.
But after she died in 2013, a bitter dispute erupted between the dealer’s eldest son David, 70, and daughter Denise, 54, over who was entitled to their father’s land.
David claimed that he and his brothers Freddie and Kevin were promised shares in the scrapyard for their years of service working for the family business.
But a judge has now ruled that Denise is the rightful owner of the 11-acre site, leaving David with just a classic 1920s Morris lorry, valued at about £10,000.
David claimed it had always been his father’s wish that the yard should be split equally between his four children.
But when Mrs McGuinness died, she left everything to Denise, apart from a small gift to charity.
In a letter she wrote to be included with her will, Mrs McGuinness said she felt that she and Denise had been excluded from the business and ‘mistreated’.
Mr McGuinness made his fortune after starting out as a rag-and-bone man with a horse and cart, while working as a miner.
After branching out into car breaking, he made millions from the scrap metal business. His yard, near Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, eventually stretched over almost half a mile and its development potential means it is now worth up to £12million. Mr Justice Newey said Mr McGuinness had been a ‘real character’ who liked nothing more than enjoying a drink and a smoke in the pub with his friends.
By the mid-1980s, his company, F McGuinness & Sons Limited, had an annual turnover of £6.6million, the High Court heard.
By the time his daughter was born, the family were living a privileged lifestyle, with the scrap mogul driving her to school every day in his Rolls-Royce.
Denise eventually had book-keeping role in the business, but this was dispensed with and although she owned a quarter of the company, her pension payments were described as ‘a pittance’.
Mrs McGuinness wrote that after her husband died, she had watched his once thriving business ‘go to nothing from greed’.
The judge described how F McGuinness & Sons had ceased trading after Mr McGuinness’s death and ‘is now thought to be insolvent’. But his wife’s estate was valued for probate at more than £3million after tax, and the court heard a £12million offer had been received for the yard.
Laying claim to a stake in the yard, David said his father had promised to give it to all of his children equally. He told the court that Mr McGuinness had once thrown the deeds to the yard and other properties on to his kitchen table and said: ‘Here, get these in your name.’
When Mr McGuinness retired from the business, he split his shares between his children and it was ‘ understood’ that the scrapyard would also be divided between them. David claimed it was ‘ simply unconscionable’ that his sister should get the entire yard, which is said to hold strategic rail and road links and development potential.
He said he had ‘ taken it for granted’ that he and his brothers would get a share in the land, having been ‘encouraged’ by their father to put their working lives into the business.
Ruling against him, however, Mr Justice Newey said Mr McGuinness had never given a cast-iron promise that the yard would be divided between his children.
Whatever he told his eldest son, it was ‘not clear enough’ to amount to a promise or assurance that could be legally enforced.
David also made a claim for a £2,000 grandfather clock, which was denied, but the judge ruled that the classic Morris lorry was rightfully his.
‘I had taken it for granted’