Father ‘duped’ into changing £3m farm will

A FARMER claimed his mother duped his father, who was suffering from dementia, into changing his will to cut him out of the family’s £3 million farm, a court heard.

Sam James, 60, says he devoted his life to working on the family farm in Dorset on the promise that one day it would be his.

But he says his elderly father, Allen, was pressured to change his will in 2010, removing him and leaving it to his mother and sisters. Allen James died in 2012. Penelope Reed QC, representing Sam James, told the High Court: “By 2010, the deceased had been suffering from dementia for a number of years”.

His mother, Sandra James, 79, disputes his account, claiming she had been unfairly portrayed as a “devious money-grabber”.

Judge Matthews will give his ruling at a later date.