She has left a big gap in the lives of all of us.' She added: 'Claire was a star on and off the screen. 'If the family had know that Claire was ill in December 2014, all of her cousins would have healed their relationship and said goodbye and Clare's family would have been actively involved in her treatment in the three months before her death.' 'That is even more abominable than trying to defraud us. Her cousin Nicola Anthony said: 'Mr Mcmaster had made no effort to contact the family so we could heal broken relationships. It is hard to say exactly how many victims there were.' 'There were a substantial number of victims to this fraud, including her cousins, her cousins children, her friends, and godchildren. ![]() Mr Halsey said: 'If there had been no fraud, their inheritance would have been worth £10,000 more. The cousins finally received £45,000 each after paying the inheritance tax. Prosecutor Mark Halsey said: 'His intention was to deprive Clare's relatives and intended beneficiary of the entire estate.' It was a despicable act of criminal conduct on your behalf.' Judge Stephen Robbins told MacMaster: 'This was a determined attempt by you to defraud Claire Gordon of her estates by forging a will when she was dying. MacMaster did not tell her surviving cousins that she was ill with a brain tumour, depriving them of the chance to patch up rocky relationships and say goodbye, the court heard. Ms Gordon had no children and had previously written a will in 2014 naming her cousins and their children as her beneficiaries, but this has never traced. ![]() The pair are said to have carried out the scam between January 2014 and September 2015.īenhamu was cleared of both charges by a jury while Macmaster was convicted of fraud. They each denied conspiracy to defraud and fraud at Southwark Crown Court. He received 60 per cent of the estate, and Morris Benhamu, 41, who had an intimate 'kissing and hugging' relationship with the actress 30 years his senior, received the other 40 per cent. Her assets, which included a cottage near the giraffe enclosure at the safari park in Wiltshire and a property in Hurghada, a beach resort in Egypt, was valued at £905,836.įive months before she died, MacMaster became the executor and sole beneficiary of her will - and he got a mentally ill man to witness the document. Ms Gordon was the first actress to appear fully naked on the British stage in a version of 'The Three Musketeers' The actress died aged 74 in April 2015 after suffering the brain tumour. She was the first actress to appear fully naked on the British stage in a version of 'The Three Musketeers' and was a former 'wifelet' of the Marquis of Bath, who ran the Longleat Safari Park. ![]() Ms Gordon starred in a series of raunchy comedies and appeared alongside British comedy legends including Bob Monkhouse and 'Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em' star Michael Crawford in West End plays during the 1960s. MacMaster was the charity's legal consultant and was jailed in 1998 for laundering drug money and trafficking cannabis.Īccording to The Telegraph, at his trial the judge said MacMaster was a valuable 'foot soldier' to dealers described by police as 'among the world's top echelon of drugs traffickers'. ![]() MacMaster is a former trustee of the People's Opportunity to Work Trust which campaigned to free Tony Martin, who was jailed after killing a burglar. Iain MacMaster, 68, convinced actress Claire Gordon to give him her legacy on her will when she was ill with a brain tumour and faked her signature on the document. A property consultant who forged a will of an actress dubbed the British Brigitte Bardot to con her out of her £1m estate has been jailed for eight years.
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