![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Beestons-from-Google-Streetview.jpg\")
The Grade II listed house, Beestons, in Vines Cross<\/p>\nA Rottingdean solicitor tasked with dealing with an elderly woman\u2019s estate bought her house himself then agreed to sell it a month later for a half million profit, a court heard today. <\/p>\n
Richard Walker, 54, has been charged with four counts of fraud in connection with Dorice Weller\u2019s 17th century house Beestons, which Walker bought in 2021. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s also accused of charging the estate for work to the four to five-bedroom house which benefited himself, and of moving in before the sale was completed without paying the estate rent. <\/p>\n
And the fourth count alleges he overcharged the estate for his legal services. He denies all four, and his trial started today.The Grade II listed house, Beestons, in Vines Cross<\/p>\n
Prosecuting at Brighton Crown Court, John Ojakovoh said: \u201cThis is a case about a fraud involving a solicitor, a will and a house.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe will in this case left most of the deceased\u2019s assets to five charities. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe house was the main asset. The solicitor, this defendant, Mr Walker, the sole practitioner at his firm Walkers Solicitors, was entrusted to act in administering the estate.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the core of this case, he bought the deceased\u2019s house himself for \u00a3775,000 then agreed its onward sale for \u00a31.3 million, one month later.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis represents a difference of more than half a million pounds, which is a benefit to himself and came at the expense of the charities involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the works Walker charged to the estate which benefited himself included a buyer\u2019s full building condition survey, chimney sweeping, heating oil and electricity consumed by Walker while he was living there before buying it, and wood treatment carried out after.<\/p>\n
Mr Ojakovoh said Miss Weller drew up her will in 2019, appointing her nephew Wayne Flamank and a firm of conveyancing solicitors called Bailey and Co as her executors. <\/p>\n
After \u00a350,000 for Mr Flamank and \u00a325,000 for her gardener Graeme Gravett, the rest of her estate was to be split between Barby Keel Animal Sanctuary, St Wilfred\u2019s Hospice, The Donkey Sanctuary, Macmillan Cancer Support and PDSA (The People\u2019s Dispensary for Sick Animals).<\/p>\n
When she died in June 2020, Mr Flamank asked Bailey and Co to step down after what he felt was an \u201cabrupt\u201d phone call, Mr Ojakovoh said, and asked to hire Walker instead.<\/p>\n
He told the jury Walker reassured Mr Flamank he would \u201cget it all sorted\u201d, and Mr Flamank was happy to leave matters to him. Walker then took over the case, sending out correspondence before co-executors Bailey and Co agreed. <\/p>\n
In October 2020, an estate agent at Foresters advised marketing the Grade II listed house at \u00a3825,000, while adding it was possible with a house like this, a buyer could fall in love with it and pay significantly more. <\/p>\n
A few days later, a second estate agent Wood and Pilchers advised marketing it for \u00a31.1 million. <\/p>\n
In a text message sent a few weeks later, Walker texted Mr Flamank and offered to buy it for \u00a3825,000, saying his wife Lorraine would \u201cnot shut up about it\u201d and mentioning the sale of their house, Lyndhurst, was set to complete in early 2021. <\/p>\n
Matters became complicated when Miss Weller\u2019s estranged son Perry Sabner, appointed solicitors to query the will and its execution.<\/p>\n
Mr Ojakovoh said Walker began writing to Mr Sabner\u2019s lawyers before he had been formally appointed to administer the will \u2013 and also said the \u201crural three bedroom property\u201d was worth about \u00a3500,000 to \u00a3600,000 \u2013 while being aware it had been valued at up to \u00a31.1 million. <\/p>\n
After Mr Sabner\u2019s lawyers repeatedly asked for Miss Weller\u2019s medical records to prove she had capacity when signing her final will, Walker told Mr Flamank in November 2020 he could no longer purchase the house. <\/p>\n
But after Mr Sabner\u2019s lawyers stopped responding following medical records being sent, he renewed his offer. <\/p>\n
By this time, substantial building work to fix the building\u2019s drainage had been started by Mr Flamank\u2019s building firm, which the prosecution says was reasonably charged to the estate. <\/p>\n
But as the months went on, and after Walker had offered to buy the house, other works which the prosecution say was not necessary for the sale were also completed \u2013 and charged to the estate. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a third valuation was commissioned from Peter Oliver, the estate agent who was selling Walker\u2019s then home Lyndhurst, which stated the value of the house when Miss Weller died in June 2020 \u2013 known as a probate valuation carried out for tax purposes \u2013 was \u00a3750,000 to \u00a3775,000. <\/p>\n
However, this would have been significantly lower than its estimated value on the date the estate agent visited, when prices had steeply risen because of the stamp duty holiday imposed during covid. <\/p>\n
Walker\u2019s email to Mr Flamank telling him about the offer did not make this clear. When Mr Flamank queried the low value, he said it was because the house needed a lot of work. <\/p>\n
The trial continues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Rottingdean solicitor tasked with dealing with an elderly woman\u2019s estate bought her house himself then agreed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[138,246,111,139,69,244,245],"class_list":["post-624173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}