A sheep farmer who used her useless father as a pretend witness in an try to inherit a £1million property was jailed yesterday.
Janice Johnson, 66, fabricated papers suggesting she was entitled to the late John Harper’s farm.
She even introduced a letter despatched to her in shaky handwriting, apparently from Mr Harper, saying he was leaving her the farm.
Police later found he didn’t have a hand tremor.
On one other event, a will was pinned to a sheep pen gate at Scrithwaite Farm, close to Millom in Cumbria, leaving every little thing to Johnson and signed by two males – Johnson’s father Martin Gott and a buddy of Mr Harper’s referred to as Norman Metcalfe. Both males had been useless, the court docket heard.
Johnson had used Mr Harper’s fields at Scrithwaite to graze her sheep for 19 years and may need satisfied herself she was entitled to the property after his demise in 2016, Preston Crown Court was instructed.
Prosecutors stated she hatched a plan to acquire the property after studying Mr Harper had not left a will and the land, buildings and cash had been “going to go to people who had no interest in the farm”.
Mr Harper died with no subsequent of kin however an inheritor analysis firm discovered 55 potential beneficiaries, three of whom visited the property.
Days later an nameless be aware was despatched to a neighbour stating that Mr Harper wished to go away farm tools and cash to some neighbours and the farm to a “J Johnson”.
When the “shaky handwriting” doc turned up, Johnson took the letter to her solicitors however was instructed it was invalid as a will as a result of it was unsigned and had not been witnessed. It was then {that a} new “will” was discovered, pinned to the sheep pen gate.
Johnson took it to her solicitors however was once more instructed it was invalid because it had no date on it. She is claimed to have tried to “authenticate” it with a date.
The prosecution claimed she or another person discovered her father’s diaries from 1999 and “squeezed” in a sentence between two traces supposedly from her father writing that he had been to witness a will.
She solid one other letter from her father telling her she had been talked about in Mr Harper’s will. But the court docket heard Mr Harper was well-known as a curmudgeon who averted social contact.
Even Johnson admitted he would conceal within the barn and shut the door when she got here to are likely to her sheep.
Prosecutors stated she had intentionally chosen useless males as witnesses to her faked paperwork so they may not be questioned.
She was caught after leaving a path of errors in her try to win the farm for herself and hold her business working, the court docket heard.
Johnson, of close by Fenwick Farm in Thwaite, was discovered responsible of 5 counts of fraud by false illustration after a week-long trial.
Yesterday she was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment to run concurrently on every fraud cost.
Judge Graham Knowles instructed her she had launched her seize of the farm straight after she met beneficiaries Ellen Steel, her daughter Claire Clark and Ms Clark’s son Gregory who visited the farm after being contacted by inheritor hunters.
“You realised John Harper had left no will so anything he owned was going to people that had no interest in the farm,” he instructed her.
“You decided swiftly you did not want that to happen and you were going to have everything he left. The letters were very incompetently done, full of illogicalities and wild improbabilities…
“You are well regarded as a hard worker, a decent woman and you are respected in the community but in this matter you could not own up to what you did. It is baffling.”
Johnson instructed the court docket she believed particular paperwork had been real and denied she had solid any letters.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
