Fraudster now faces £1.3m bill for faking will
A MAN who faked a relative’s will to prevent a charity benefiting from the legacy is being chased by prosecutors for more than £1.3million.
Paul Coppola, 67, yesterday told Sheriff Frank Crowe at Edinburgh Sheriff Court that his conviction for fraud has affected his personal life and he had lost friends because of his crime.
The former businessman was jailed for two years in November 2017 after pleading guilty to faking a relative’s will to prevent a charity from receiving cash.
Prosecutors claim Coppola made £1,341,814 from his criminal activities and are seeking to recover the money from him.
When Sheriff Crowe asked Coppola whether people had turned their back on him following his conviction, he replied: ‘Yes. I lost friends and people didn’t speak to me – particularly after the publication of press reports.’
Coppola, of Abbeyhill, Edinburgh, made the admission as he was giving evidence on the first day of a proceeds of a crime action. Coppola had forged the signature of Desiderio Coppola just days before his death in October 2011.
The deceased had wanted his £7million estate to be divided between his family and the balance left to the charity, Medecins Sans Frontieres.
Coppola’s relative was his second cousin and he had known him all his life. The accused also referred to him as uncle.
In July 2010, Desiderio made a will leaving much of his estate to his friends and family, with Paul Coppola getting £100,000.
It also gave instructions that tenants of business premises that he owned were to be offered the chance to buy them. Mr Coppola also stated the rest of his estate would go to the French humanitarian charity.
But days before his gravely ill relative’s death, the court was told Paul Coppola presented a new will to the family with no mention of the charity or the business premises and instructing the remainder of the estate to be paid to Coppola.
Depute procurator fiscal Anne MacNeill told the court that the day following Mr Coppola’s death, the accused contacted his goddaughter Elvira Fearn to tell her about the will.
The fiscal said: ‘Although she had no knowledge of the wills or the deceased’s intentions, she was suspicious of the will because she was aware that the deceased hated to pay tax and she did not believe that he would have omitted Medecins Sans Frontieres completely and left the residue to the accused as there would have been a large tax liability to pay.’
The court heard that the accused’s relatives started to become concerned with the will and the police became involved.
Coppola then admitted to detectives that he had forged the signature.
The hearing continues.