Window cleaner left £300,000 in will refused to pay it back
A RETIRED window cleaner, who inherited £300,000 from one of his elderly customers, could be jailed after ignoring a judge’s order to hand the money back to her family.
Albert Pearce was left the fortune when 98-year-old Julie Spalding changed her will and bequeathed him her bungalow and £60,000 in savings.
In 2014 her nephew, Cecil Bray, 82, challenged the will, and Mr Pearce was told to hand back the full amount. But instead, the 83-year-old was declared bankrupt after claiming he had spent or lost the entire fortune. Now Mr Pearce faces a possible prison sentence after being accused of lying about what he did with the money.
The pensioner, from Finchley, in north London, allegedly squirrelled away hundreds of thousands of pounds in various bank accounts, in an attempt to make it appear as if he was broke.
During a hearing at the High Court in London it was alleged that Mr Pearce had kept the money in his family through a “chain of transactions”. He was also accused of lying about losing £300,000, by stating it had been in the boot of his car when it was repossessed.
Miss Spalding, who had no children, had promised to leave her entire estate to her nephew, Mr Bray, after he gave up work to look after her in 1996. But in 2005 he claimed she underwent a “series of major personality changes”, following a number of falls.
She then ordered Mr Bray out of her home and “excommunicated” him from her life. Around that time Mr Pearce, who was her window cleaner, began to help look after her.
Following her death in 2008, Mr Pearce was the sole benefactor from her will, inheriting almost £300,000.
During a legal challenge, a judge rejected suggestions that Mr Pearce had exercised “undue influence” over Miss Spalding, saying there was no evidence of coercion on his part.
But he added that she had “expressly agreed” she would leave her house to Mr Bray when she died and it was right to hold her to that promise.
During a hearing at the High Court yesterday, Mr Pearce was accused of a series of contempts of court after he “falsely stated that he had spent all of the money he inherited from Julie Spalding on travelling and gambling”.
Benjamin Gray, representing the trustee in Mr Pearce’s bankruptcy case, said: “He retained the money and moved it through the chain of transactions, which were transactions at undervalue and or defrauding creditors.”
The case was adjourned until October to allow Mr Pearce, who denies the claims, to seek legal aid.