This photograph is for
illustration purposes only
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Most of our cases are interesting, but some truly stand
out, and are fascinating at every stage; the research we
carried out on the family of Steele was such a case.
Margaret
Steele died a widow leaving behind a considerable estate.
She had a large property and a smaller bungalow as well as
other assets. She had no children. A gentleman by the name
of Mr Fuller came forward with a Will in which he was named
the executor. By the time the case was referred to us, Mr
Fuller’s forged Will had already been revoked
and the police were trying to locate him. He had allegedly
left the country and investigations, international searches
(to which we contributed) and criminal proceedings were all
required. Luckily, the estate had not been distributed.
Since there was no valid Will and no next of kin of the
deceased were known, the estate would pass to the Crown if
no heirs came forward. What remained to be done therefore
was to undertake research into the family to establish if
there were, in fact, entitled relatives.
The research went smoothly and we started to identify family
members. One of the people entitled had moved to Spain for
her retirement, and she was fairly straightforward to find.
What made this case stand out was that one of the branches
of the family spoke of a homeless relative who would have
been a cousin of the deceased. We had already come across
him in the birth indexes, but had yet to locate his current
address, so we were particularly interested in their accounts
of him. They knew his name and were certain he had been living
on the streets for some considerable time. However, nobody
had had any contact with him for years.
We caught word that
he had worked for the Big Issue in London. A member of our
staff with a contact at the Big Issue office was able to
find that Mr Steele was still on their books and had a pitch
in Soho, London. We visited the site in Soho, and although
we found the cardboard boxes where he lived, we were unable
to actually meet him. After discussions with the Big Issue,
it was agreed that we should send a letter to their office
for them to pass on to Mr. Steele when he next visited to
collect his next consignment. Our contact at the Big Issue
explained that as a homeless person, Mr Steele would have
reservations about using the little money he had to call
us – and so we encouraged him to make
a reverse charge call to the office in our initial letter
to him. Eventually, Mr Steele returned to the Big Issue office
and one day turned up unexpectedly at our offices.
He had
indeed been homeless for years. Mr Steele was accustomed
to things not turning out well for him, and was sceptical
that this would bring him anything at all. Nevertheless he
said that he hoped he would inherit enough money to be able
to buy himself a little house in Wales, which would probably
cost him £10,000.
Once our research was completed and
the solicitors were in a position to make an interim distribution,
we had a new challenge to contend with; Mr Steele, being
of no fixed address, was not the holder of a bank account – nor
could he obtain one. We tried to liaise with the banks, but
to no avail. He was faced with a classic chicken-and-egg
situation of not being able to open an account without an
address, and not being able to rent a home without the funds
to which he was entitled. In the end, we took the highly
unusual step of advancing him a £1500 loan, in cash,
for him to be able to rent a home, obtain a bank account,
and finally receive the interim distribution to which he
was entitled. His share was a quarter of this initial £400,000
distribution. Three months later once the property had been
sold, a further distribution of £400,000 took place,
then £360,000
two months later, and then £76,000 seven months later.
The final distribution of £2,000 took place five months
later.
In total, each of the four heirs was entitled to a
quarter of £1.23 million – which is all the more
remarkable when you remember that Mr Steele would probably
not have been prepared to spare the expense of a single telephone
call to contact our office!
With his inheritance Mr Steele
purchased a Welsh castle in need of renovation, which he
is undertaking himself. He was also able to obtain a passport
and visit his sister in Spain. This case has been featured
on the Money Programme on BBC1. |
