Liar must pay back inherited 300,000

A CLEANER who tricked an elderly Alzheimer's victim out of her 300,000 fortune was branded a greedy liar and ordered to hand it back by a High Court judge today.

As a result, Great Ormond Street children's hospital will receive an estimated 200,000 windfall under the will of retired nurse Lily Morris.

Mr Justice Rimer rejected claims by Pauline Rushin and her 27- year-old daughter Carol Billinge that Mrs Morris wanted them to have her home and money because they looked after her and were like the family she never had.

He described their evidence that Mrs Morris knew what she was doing as "untruthful and unconvincing" and found them guilty of "undue influence". Mrs Morris, 76, died at her farmhouse in April 1997 after she was strangled when clothing became trapped in a stairlift.

Her will left the bulk of her estate to Great Ormond Street, where she had worked as a nursing sister But in February 1996 she signed over Home Farm House, at Idridgehay, near Belper, Derbyshire, to Mrs Morris, leaving the estate almost worthless.

She also made Mrs Pushin a joint signatory on her building society account, with more than 50,000 being taken out before the account was frozen.

Some of the cash was used to buy cars for Mrs Pushin and her family, including a 16,000 BMW for Ms Billinge and a Porsche for her son Andrew Billinge.

Before money started to leak from the account there had been almost 70,000 in it.

All cars were seized and sold after her death and the money raised will go back into her estate with the house, said the judge.

Mrs Rushin of Kniveton, Derbyshire, and Ms Billinge must pay the estimated 100,000 costs of the hearing brought by Great Ormond Street Hospital trustees.

Defence counsel Siward Atkins said Mrs Rushin and Mrs Morris were more than friends. "They were a surrogate quasi-family. The love and affection between them may have been the motive for the transaction."

But the judge said he was satisfied that "at least by the last year or so of her life Mrs Morris was suffering from Alzheimer's disease".

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