MOVING ON
FORTUNE
Childless Mr Pring died without leaving a will, so his UK assets would normally pass to his widow.
If the family’s case is successful, under the Forfeiture Act designed to stop killers getting victims’ cash, Ms Ziuzina would not be able to inherit his fortune.
Ms Ziuzina now lives in Spain in a £700,000 villa in Marbella with London property developer Ivan Lister, 48, with whom she had a daughter in 2013. Her parents live in another Costa del Sol property reportedly owned by Ms Ziuzina.
Mr Pring’s family claim in the court papers that at the time of his death the businessman was “intoxicated and disorientated” after drinking during a meal at a restaurant, close to a four-lane motorway.
They allege Ms Ziuzina pretended to call a taxi and told her husband it would be 30 to 40 minutes. In the court papers, they claim: “The conversation which she reported to the deceased was a charade, designed to induce the deceased to find some other means of returning to Kiev.”
The couple had left the restaurant and Mr Pring crossed a crash barrier and was hit by a car doing more than 55mph, it is claimed.
The papers add: “There was no good reason for the motor car to be travelling along the hard shoulder... The brakes of the motor car were not applied during the incident; it did not crash, brake or stop. It is to be inferred that the motor vehicle was deliberately driven along the hard shoulder at speed, and was deliberately driven at the deceased.”
The car was a VW Jetta, posing as a cab, that had been stolen from Kiev close to a flat that had been rented by Ms Ziuzina, it is alleged.
The papers state: “It is to be inferred that the person driving the car knew that the deceased would
PRING FAMILY CLAIM IN COURT DOCUMENTS be seeking to flag down a taxi.” In her defence, Ms Ziuzina denies the claims. She said she and her husband had shared around 20 shots of vodka, around a litre.
Mr Pring began feeling sick and wanted to get home quickly using a “gypsy cab” or private vehicle acting as an informal taxi. He was hit as he attempted to catch a lift, she said.
Mr Pring’s death was first recorded as a road traffic offence by the Ukrainian police, but was later classified as premeditated murder.
But a new police investigation in Ukraine has concluded that Mr Pring did die in a traffic accident.
And a fresh inquest, due to take
It is to be inferred the vehicle was deliberately driven at deceased