In a recent case, “spiteful” mother Katherine Hill was ordered to repay £50,000 that she stole from her own daughters’ inheritances. The money had been left by their late grandmother to be accessed on the girls’ 25th birthdays as per the terms of the will trust, and their mother was appointed as a trustee. However, instead of distributing the funds to the girls as per the terms of the trust, the girls’ mother and their grandfather, Gerald Hill, accessed the funds themselves and spent them, acting in breach of trust.

In court on Monday (2 June), the defendants provided the excuse that they had delivered the money in envelopes through the daughters’ letterboxes, but the judge found that Ms Hill stole that money out of spite as she was jealous of the girls receiving a larger inheritance than herself. Their actions in defrauding the girls were discovered in 2018 when one of the daughters asked for her share of the trust fund to buy a house, only to find the savings account almost entirely drained.

The decision

Following a fraud conviction last year, Ms Hill was sentenced to 30 months in prison, while her 93-year-old father received a suspended sentence. The court heard the stolen sum had risen to around £65,000 due to inflation. The judge found Ms Hill had used the money to pay her partner’s mortgage and fund a lifestyle she would not otherwise have been able to afford. She was ordered to repay the stolen £50,000 within three months or face an additional six months in prison. Her father was ordered to repay £6,000 or serve three months.

The case highlights the significant implications for breaching fiduciary obligations, in this case resulting in a prison sentence and an obligation to repay the monies wrongfully spent in breach of trust.