Bid to stop fraudsters marrying elderly for fortunes

GOLD-DIGGERS must be stopped from swindling vulnerable, mostly elderly, people and their children, MPs were told yesterday.

Fraudsters are duping dementia patients into marriage or civil partnership for their wealth, said Labour MP Fabian Hamilton.

He submitted a Bill seeking to change the rule that original wills are then revoked.

He told of a woman constituent’s story he could “hardly believe was possible in modern Britain”.

The constituent’s mother, aged 91, had married a man more than 20 years her junior, despite having advanced vascular dementia.

A year later she died intestate and her new husband automatically inherited her estate.

Mr Hamilton said: “It was three days after her mother’s death that she discovered that she had been married at Leeds Town Hall.”

Useless

He said the family spent £200,000 on legal fees but the “sadly deficient” marriage laws proved useless.

Mr Hamilton also wants “intention to marry” notices displayed on the internet, not just in a physical location, and better training for registrars to identify a lack of mental capacity.

He said: “It’s not good enough for a registrar simply to say that because one of the participants… was smiling at the time, that meant consent was happily given.

“This Bill will establish that marriage should no longer revoke a will.

“There should be better training for registrars to ensure robust procedures for safeguarding vulnerable individuals are in place.

“The capacity to marriage should be established via a simple questionnaire to alert registrars that an assessment of capacity may be needed.”

His Bill is listed to return in January but is unlikely to become law without Government support or sufficient Parliamentary time.