A family solicitor is in the dock accused of almost making a £500,000 profit from an estate he administered after a charity beneficiary reported him to the police, a court heard today.
Richard Walker, 54, is charged with four counts of fraud in relation to his dealings with the will of Dorice Weller, whose main asset was a Grade II listed house called Beestons.
Walker bought the house while acting on behalf of Miss Weller’s executor for £775,000 and put it on the market for £1.3 million less than two weeks later.
The five counts relate to the sale, to his charging the estate for unnecessary building works, for failing to pay any rent for living there before the sale and for overcharging the estate.
He denies all charges, and his trial began at Brighton Crown Court yesterday.
Prosecuting, John Ojakovoh told the jury the alleged frauds were at the expense of five charities named as beneficiaries of Miss Weller’s will.
Miss Weller died in June 2020, the house sale to Walker was completed in June 2021 and in September, Walker sent the estate accounts to the five charities, along with a cheque for £155,003 – the first time they’d been notified they were beneficiaries.
But one of the charities, St Wilfrid’s Hospice, smelt a rat.
Mr Ojakovoh said: “St Wilfrid’s banked the cheque but did not sign the acceptance form, because as far as they were concerned the accounts they’d received raised a number of questions.
“There had been no consent sought for any of the arrangements that had been made or expenditures.
“There was no audit trail for the sale price of Beestons of £775,000. St Wilfrid’s carried out an online search, and they spotted that Beestons had been put on the market within three months of the original sale – as you know it was precisely 13 days after, and a sale agreed for £1.3 million.
“Land Registry paperwork indicated that the property was bought in the original sale by the administering solicitor, Mr Walker.
“If that charity been notified in advance, it would have sought an independent valuation from a qualified local surveyor.”
St Wilfrid’s asked Walker for more documentation, and was sent redacted valuations, but these raised more questions.
It took legal advice, and notified both the other charities – Barby Keel Animal Sanctuary, The Donkey Sanctuary, Macmillan Cancer Support and PDSA (The People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals) – and the police.
The jury was also told more about the proposed sale of Beestons for £1.3 million. The house was initially marketed for £1.3 to £1.5 million, and within a couple of weeks Alan and Pauline Davies put in an offer for £1.3 million, which was accepted.
But their conveyancing solicitor Emin Read Solicitors soon uncovered the “vast increase” between the previous months sale price and the current asking price.
Walker, whose firm Walkers Solicitors was dealing with the conveyancing using his email address, told Emin Read this was because of all the work done to the house to make it habitable since the purchase, saying: “They have no idea what a dirty and broken state it was in when we bought it.”
Mr Ojakovoh showed the jury several exchanges between Walker and Emin Reed, which he said were “riddled with dishonesty”.
The jury had previously been told the estate had paid about £70,000 on work to the house – of which the prosecution says only about £20,000 was necessary for the sale, and the rest for Walker’s benefit.
Mr Ojakovoh also said Mr Flamank remembered signing a tenancy agreement Walker had drawn up when he and his wife moved into the house before the sale went through for about £1,200 to £1,400 a month. No rent was ever paid to the estate.
And he showed the jury a typo-strewn text from Walker to his wife Lorraine, which said: “Should we have proper survet? We getting at knock down price anyway and been yhere fir 500 years ir so….?”
He said the Walkers had gone ahead with the full survey, which they had charged to the estate.
The trial, which is scheduled to last for five weeks, continues.
