Family guilty in wills and probate murder case

A family have been convicted of attempting to kill their grandfather in order to receive their inheritance early, rather than waiting for the wills and probate process to take its course.

At Winchester Crown Court, a jury decided that four of the individuals making up the defence were guilty of conspiracy to murder in order to receive their £400,000 inheritance.

The 89-year-old grandfather was attacked by a mother from Eastleigh, who has not been named, along with three of her offspring and her son’s girlfriend.

Another defendant, the lady’s youngest female child, was not convicted on this charge but instead judged to be guilt of malicious wrongdoing.

The grandfather survived the attack in November 2010, when he was set upon in his front garden in a village close to Winchester.

“Obviously it's shocking a family can do this to someone who is related to them but it appears to a crime motivated entirely by greed and nothing else,” detective sergeant Bryan Carter of Hampshire Constabulary told the BBC.

In April this year, Usman Shahzad also admitted his guilt in a wills and probate murder case after he killed his mother, as he believed that she would not include him in her will.

Published by Hannah Carr