Mother forged partner’s £2m will to cut out children

A WOMAn forged her late lover’s will in a bid to stop her two children and stepson inheriting his £1.9million home. Kamarah Graham-York claimed to have found the document hidden among old books following the death of musician norton York.

She and Mr York had lived together for 33 years but never married. It meant that when he died in 2009, their six-bedroom semi in Chiswick, West London, which was registered in his name, should have gone to the couple’s son Graham York, 40, daughter Ilona Gidney, 39, and Mr York’s son Adrian, 41, from a previous relationship.

But Graham-York devised a bizarre plan to invent another daughter who would inherit the estate and pass it to her, a court heard. She also tried to recruit Mrs Gidney to her scheme before producing the forged will, sparking a family feud and fiveyear legal battle that eventually saw her evicted.

The attempted fraud led to her arrest two years ago and this week Graham-York, 66, received a two-year jail term, suspended for two years.

The former professional singer admitted defrauding the London Probate Office in 2010 in an attempt to claim the £901,200 residue of Mr York’s estate.

Isleworth Crown Court heard that the family’s legal dispute had resulted in the estate being whittled down to £458,085 after the mortgage on the house, which sold for £1.9million last year, was paid off. Graham-York, who at one stage refused an offer of a quarter of the estate in return for settling the dispute, is now living in a single room provided by her local council.

Passing sentence at Isleworth Crown Court, Judge Phillip Matthews told Graham-York: ‘You were concerned that you were going to be left high and dry so planned your own method to obtain what you could from the estate. You were shocked by the fact there was no will, but that is no excuse for making the lives of your family a misery for years.

‘You involved others through pressure, it was sophisticated, you forged a document with your ex-partner’s signature. It appears the purpose of your deception was to take the lot.’

Prosecutor Yetunde Martin said Graham-York had been described by her children as ‘ out of control, refusing to accept the whole estate wouldn’t be hers’. She had threatened In court: Kamarah Graham-York and, inset, the £1.9m family home suicide and was scared by the thought of being left with nothing. Her stepson spent £120,000 fighting the case in the courts.

‘He saw the signature on the will bore no resemblance to that of his father,’ Miss Martin said. ‘He also found ... evidence of the defendant practising his father’s signature.’

Adrian York said in an impact statement he had suffered a stress- related illness as his father’s estate was drained.

He described Graham-York as a ‘ serial liar’ while his halfbrother Graham told the court his mother was ‘manipulative’ and interested only in her own ‘criminal gains,’ adding: ‘She has defrauded the family out of any inheritance whatsoever.’

Julian Waskett, mitigating for Graham-York, told the court: ‘She was shocked there was no will providing for her after 33 years together and thought she would be disinherited to the advantage of her children.

‘Having started, she couldn’t and wouldn’t stop it. She took an entrenched position.’

‘Years of criminal deception’