An 88-year-old German woman asked her notary to leave her €1.2 million estate to the Church, nuns and neighbours; instead, he named himself sole heir and has now been given a suspended sentence
The Times of India · TOI World Desk ·
A will is supposed to be the last clear voice of the person who wrote it.
A will is supposed to be the last clear voice of the person who wrote it. It tells the world where the money should go, who should receive the house and what the writer wanted to be remembered for. When that voice gets bent by someone else’s hand, the damage goes well beyond the paperwork. And that’s exactly what happened in Braunfels, a small town in the Lahn-Dill district, where a notary decided to rewrite a deceased woman’s wishes, according to prosecutors, as reported by Hessenschau. An 88-year-old woman turned to her notary for help with her will, but he instead carried out a fraud. On Tuesday, 3 November, the Limburg Regional Court sentenced the former notary to a two-year suspended prison sentence for forgery and fraud. The court found that the notary had attempted to fraudulently obtain the deceased woman’s inheritance.
A will that was never written
In February 2023, the woman, then 88, asked the notary to draw up her will. She wanted her assets to go to a monastery in the Rheingau, a church community in Braunfels and her neighbours. According to the indictment, the notary drew up an inheritance contract instead, one that could not be contested later.
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