Revealed: Black Widow got £21,000 legal aid – now we want it back!
AN internet bride allegedly involved in the murder of her wealthy British husband was awarded £21,000 in legal aid to fight his family, the Mail can reveal. Former stripper Ganna Ziuzina, 38, was granted taxpayer funds in her battle in the UK courts to grab a major share of Barry Pring’s £1.5million estate.
But the Ukrainian has now been told she must pay back the money. However, as Miss Ziuzina is living in a luxury villa in Spain – with another wealthy British businessman – it is unclear how the Legal Aid Agency will be able to force her to return the cash.
She was deemed eligible for legal aid in the UK three months after Mr Pring, 47, was hit by a car and killed in Ukraine in February 2008, even though she did not move to Britain until he died.
The Legal Aid Agency confirmed that it is considering court action against Miss Ziuzina, whose ‘legal aid was revoked in August 2012 after she failed to cooperate with an investigation into her financial means’. It added: ‘She is liable for all the legal aid costs paid out for her case. We continue to take all possible steps to recover the costs.’
Details of her legal aid bill followed a Freedom of Information request by the Mail to the Ministry of Justice, which revealed last week that Miss Ziuzina had received £21,165 aid for ‘probate and inheritance’ matters – £14,113 for her solicitor, £5,964 for her barrister and £1,088 in expenses to help prepare the case.
The legal aid bill emerged after
‘Kick in the teeth to his family’
an inquest three weeks ago heard claims that Miss Ziuzina murdered IT consultant Mr Pring for his money. A coroner in Exeter, who recorded a verdict of unlawful killing, was told she led her husband to the edge of a dual carriageway on the outskirts of Kiev after to hail a taxi after a meal to celebrate their first wedding anniversary.
As she went back inside the restaurant to collect a pair of gloves, Mr Pring, from Battersea, South West London, was killed by a speeding vehicle with no lights and stolen number plates.
Within days, Miss Ziuzina flew to the UK and tried to move into his London flat and claim his assets, the inquest heard.
Mr Pring’s brother Shaughan described the legal aid payout to Miss Ziuzina, whom he calls a ‘black widow’, as ludicrous and a kick in the teeth to his family.
He added: ‘She should never have got it in the first place.’
The Pring family claim that after moving into her late husband’s Battersea flat, she sold his Rolex watch, antique furniture, television and even the sofa. She also tried to transfer ownership of his two Kiev apartments into her name.
Barry Pring is said to have been besotted with Miss Ziuzina, then 29, despite friends’ fears she was a ‘gold-digger’. He met her online and started paying her an allowance to stop her lap-dancing. She has denied any involvement in Mr Pring’s death and refused to give evidence at the inquest.
As revealed in the Mail last month, she has bought two properties on the Costa del Sol, one a £700,000 villa with a swimming pool which she shares with new partner Ivan Lister, a property developer who has a £2million home in North London. The couple have a daughter, born in 2013.
Although the legal wrangle over Mr Pring’s estate has not been resolved, Spanish land registry documents reveal she also found up to £130,000 to buy a flat in near her Marbella villa for her father Valeriy and mother Olga.
The Ukrainian police investigation into Mr Pring’s murder has been dogged by allegations of corruption, incompetence and a cover-up. Legal sources believe several people, including a relative and close friend of Miss Ziuzina may have been involved in the murder plot.
Police initially treated Devonborn Mr Pring’s death as a traffic accident. It was upgraded to a murder inquiry only after the Mail exposed the shambolic nature of the investigation.
In the wake of the inquest verdict, the Pring family’s MP Neil Parish has written to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to ask him to put pressure on the Ukrainian authorities to bring the culprits to justice.