Fraudulent heir hunter to repay victims

The company had charged more than £3 per minute and had raided their inheritance to pay for it, a court heard at a previous hearing.
Beneficiaries Limited targeted three local siblings when their 93-year-old aunt died without leaving a will for her £240,000 estate, a jury was told.
Representatives from the business racked up bills of more than £15,000 pounds before they even contacted the family of Charlotte Cook after she died in a nursing home, aged 93.
Gordon Menzies, prosecuting on behalf of West Berkshire Council at the original hearing, described how a team from the firm turned up, unannounced, at the homes of bereaved David Mitchell and his siblings Lesley Mitchell of Burghfield Common and Patricia Byrne of Tutts Clump.
World Wide Genealogy Ltd (formerly Beneficiaries Ltd) was ordered to pay the victims £35,493.04 each and Canadian heirs £53,239.56 each.
The total £213,096.98 awarded amounts to the entire value of the estate after legal costs were deducted.
His Honour Justice Parkes QC, senten cing the Edinburgh-based company at Reading Crown Court on Tuesday, described the 10 offences as “calculated, cynical and well-planned frauds”.
He went on to fine the company an additional £25,000.