Son of scrap metal king wins bitter family court fight over dad’s £4m will
THE son of an “illiterate” RollsRoyce-driving scrap king has won a bitter High Court family battle over his father’s £4million fortune – despite his dad’s plans to cut him out of the will.
Tom Goodwin had a keen business brain despite his limited ability to read and write and built up a multimillion-pound fortune, having started out with a scrapyard in Barnsley in 1967.
Over the next five decades, he married twice, moving into farming as his wealth grew, and had three children, all of whom the millionaire had serious fallings out with.
Just weeks before he died in November 2018, aged 83, the “thrifty Yorkshireman” planned to cut son Gary out of his will, the court was told. But despite his dad’s wishes he has been left in control of most of the fortune.
Although Tom spoke to solicitors about it, a will cutting Gary out was not drawn up and his legacy will be divided under terms of a
2017 document, in which Gary, 56, was named the main heir.
In court, his sister Jacqueline Avison, 61, and her daughter Nicola Smith argued that the 2017 will was the result of pressure Gary placed on his dad. And that a previous one made in 2005 should stand, under which Gary would get no more than Tom’s beloved Rolls-Royce. It was claimed the proposed new document would leave everything to Nicola, his
granddaughter. But Jacqueline, below, and Nicola dropped their High Court case midway through and Judge Malcolm Davis-White QC ruled that the 2017 document stands.
Gary will receive the car, one of Tom’s farms and the reins of his business. Judge Davis-White said claims of his pressure were groundless as Tom “knew his own mind” and was unlikely to be cowed by anyone.
Tom started his scrapyard in the 1960s but later bought Pear Tree Farm and Santingley Grange Farm, near Wakefield, in 1997. He had
three children, Jacqueline, Gillian, 59, and Gary, all of whom he had bust-ups with, and was a grandfather of 10 by the time he died.
Describing Tom as “wily”, the judge said: “The breakdowns in relationships often seemed bitter and protracted. He had a tendency to tell people things they wanted to hear. I am also satisfied he did not always tell the truth.”
He ordered case costs to be picked up by Jacqueline, Nicola and three other grandchildren of Tom’s who had supported them.