A woman and her ex-husband who allegedly lost substantial funds belonging to the woman's mother have been ordered by a judge to pay back the missing money.
After the mother died in 2019, at the age of 86, the woman's sister brought proceedings in an effort to find out what had happened to the money. She alleged that the woman had taken control of their mother's finances in 2017 after she became mentally fragile. The woman had then allegedly deposited £475,000 of the mother's money into a bank account before transferring most of the funds to her ex-husband to invest. The sister claimed that most of the money was lost on highly speculative spread bets on currencies.
The ex-husband denied knowing explicitly that the funds had belonged to the mother. He also claimed that £144,000 had been returned to the woman and she had subsequently bought a Porsche for £54,000, although she denied this.
The judge concluded that there was now virtually no money left in the mother's estate and said it was 'inconceivable' that the woman could have believed she was acting in her mother's best interests. The woman and her ex-husband were jointly ordered to repay £475,000, plus interest estimated at £200,000, to the sister and the estate. The judge also ruled that the woman must repay a further £25,000 plus interest.