Overview
- Peter Littler, 61, pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position and was jailed for 40 months at Preston Crown Court last week.
- As executor of Joseph Webster’s will, he sold the house and sent the sale money to his own bank instead of to solicitors who were meant to distribute the estate.
- He ignored repeated requests to release the funds and told a beneficiary he could do what he wanted as executor.
- Reports detailed spending that included a £3,000 60th birthday party, £2,000 for semen from an Olympic racehorse, and paying off an overdraft, with about £166,000 due to the children and grandchildren.
- Judge Michael Maher called it a manifest abuse of trust and said six beneficiaries lost vital choices in their lives, while the family has begun civil action to claw back the money and enforce an executor’s duty to handle estate funds through proper channels.