A man who left his partner a significant sum of money in his will ended up leaving his loved ones with a mystery when they couldn't find him.
Australian man William Ian Southey died in 2022 at the age of 73, and two months before his passing, he'd made a new will naming his partner Kyle Stuart Jackson as executor.
The Mail reports that he left around $100,000 to his ex-wife Kaye Moseley, with them staying friends after they separated and he got into a relationship with another man.
That other relationship had ended with his partner's death in 2017, so most of the rest of William's things went to his new partner, Kyle, including his house, which was sold for $2.5 million.
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However, when they tried getting in touch with Kyle, it turned out he'd never actually been to Australia or met William in person. They'd got in touch online near the start of 2022, and William had altered his will shortly before he died in anticipation that they might get married.
The man claiming to be Kyle Stuart Jackson said he was upset at hearing William had died and couldn't keep talking, but when he was sent emails from the late Southey's solicitors trying to sort out the estate, he didn't respond.
Eventually, he sent a message saying he was excusing himself from receiving anything from the man, with court documents claiming he wrote: 'I don't want it, I don't deserve it'.
When they asked if he still wanted to be the executor of the estate, he said no, meaning, according to William's will, that role would fall to Kaye, but he demanded to be 'informed of every step of the process of execution as well as entitled to 15 per cent of his estate's value'.
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He provided an address in the US and a picture of a passport, but demanded all communication be email only, and when they sent him documents, they got a response from someone else saying no Kyle Jackson was living there.
They next heard from 'Kyle' months later as he claimed he'd been recovering from an accident, asking whether he'd missed the chance to fill in his forms.
Efforts to verify Kyle's identity, including hiring a private detective in the US, were unsuccessful, and the detective concluded that the passport in the photo the man had provided was a fake.
A court said there was 'considerable uncertainty as to whether or not Mr. Jackson exists', and now the verdict is in that a judge is satisfied 'Kyle Stuart Jackson does not exist in the manner understood by the deceased, or at all'.
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As such, William's ex-wife Kaye has said this case is a 'dire warning' about the dangers of scammers.
She said: "These issues pop up time and time again, but I am very concerned that we'll see lots more now, particularly with online relationships.
"We see a lot in financial scams; people with vulnerabilities or disabilities transferring money overseas. But now, this case has shown that it's actually even progressed to being nominated as a potential beneficiary under a will as well."
Topics: Australia
Joe Harker