Family’s inheritance has gone to the dogs

Relatives’ celebrations following news that they had inherited a small fortune have been cut short by the 11th-hour discovery of a will.

The testament, left by spinster Elizabeth June Dean, left her £300,000 estate to the RSPCA – and, in it, she also underlined the need to spend some of the cash on her own dogs.

Yvonne Brewster, from Willenhall, West Midlands, and Julie Dennant, from Walsall, aged 57, were among those who had been told they stood to inherit their distant relative’s estate – an empty property in one of Hampshire’s most exclusive postcodes.