Care home boss ‘used fake wills to plunder residents’ fortunes’
A French care home manager has been accused of placing false wills on wealthy retirees who died without heirs, so he could pillage their fortunes.
The retirement home boss is among nine people who stood trial on Monday in Cusset, in the Allier département of central France, on charges of fraudulently amassing €6 million (£5.3 million) in four years from a string of victims who died with no relatives to leave their estates.
Other defendants include a notary, an executor, a lawyer, a genealogist and an undertaker.
Prosecutors allege Patrick Hureau, who ran a care home in Fréjus, in Provence, was tasked with identifying hapless victims on their last legs.
One of these, Victor Lambin, had mysteriously drawn up a last-minute “new will” that Mr Hureau is accused of slipping in his pocket.
The handwritten document left his entire estate to a certain Jean-Louis Magnin - an ex-notary accused of being the gang’s mastermind and who was struck off in 2004 for “abuse of weakness”.
Alleged mastermind
Prosecutors were intrigued by the expensive lifestyle of Mr Magnin, who they claim pocketed most of the money. He had a taste for high-end cars, including a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, and a Porsche 911 Carrera, as well as a penchant for exotic foreign trips and racehorses - owning five thoroughbreds and co-owning another six. He owns around 60 properties around France.
Alain Carvel, a former associate of Mr Magnin, is accused of drawing up false wills and genealogist Christian Chambaud for confirming the absence of heirs. Sébastien Boussel and Parisian lawyer Georges-Henri Laudrain are respectively accused of “drumming up business” and officiating over legal signings.
The gang employed various creative wheezes, said prosecutors. One entailed drawing up a will leaving a victim’s entire estate to a woman who looked after the deceased’s cats, and who turned out to be Mr Magnin’s mother.
But the piece de resistance was a fake will in which Colette Gaty left her entire estate of more than €1 million (£878,555) “to my first love” - who turned out to be none other than Mr Magnin’s dead father Jean. The son then became the universal beneficiary.
Defendant denies wrongdoing
The gang was eventually charged thanks to the suspicions of an executor in charge of the estate of Daniel Mazeas, who hung himself in 2015 and had no heirs. A few months later, a Parisian lawyer, a notary and their “chauffeur” - Mr Magnin - turned up with a will they claim had been drawn up three days before this death.
It said he had left his house, apartment and garage to a fictitious “old friend”- a 70-year-old Lebanese woman who lived in Chelsea, London, and who prosecutors said turned out to be an accomplice. The executor grew suspicious because the handwriting did not match.
After fleeing to Dubai, Mr Magnin, who denies wrongdoing, had been detained awaiting trial since 2017, when he returned to France.
The other defendants accuse him of being the mastermind and say they were either unaware of his motives or received very little or no recompense for their work.
