Heir hunter who ignored will and tried to sell dead model's £600k home to make commission ordered to pay £250k

A TV heir hunter who ignored a will and attempted to sell a deceased model's £600,000 home to make a commission has landed himself with a £250,000 legal bill after losing a court case.

Andrew Fraser, who has featured on the BBC's "heir hunters" show, believed Tessa Amstell may have died aged 98 in 2011 without making a will.

He then set about tracing heirs in a bid to make a hefty commission for himself on the north London property, unearthing up to 30 distant relatives.

However, it emerged the Mrs Amstell, a 1930s society model, had in fact created a will - which had been mislaid and not formally admitted to probate - and in it she left the property to her favourite nephew Martin Amstell, 74. 

Central London County Court was told Mr Fraser ignored Mr Amstell's claim despite being told of the missing will, and took control of Mrs Amstell's estate "with gusto".

He tried to sell the house to pocket his £75,000 commission after changing the locks on her home and clearing it out. He then ran up six-figure bills in a bid to "play the game and squeeze" her rightful heir.

When learning of the will's existence, he even embarked on a hugely expensive 12-month "trawl" through medical records in a "pointless" attempt to prove that Mrs Amstell had lost the mental capacity to make one, said Judge Nigel Gerald.

After he dropped the challenge to Mr Amstell's inheritance, Mr Fraser went to court in a bid to get him and 22 animal charities also named in the will to pay his £134,000 heir-hunting costs.

But ordering him to pay the entire costs of the dispute - a total bill of over £250,000 - Judge Gerald said he had been "primarily focused on his financial gain".

In taking over administration of the estate without telling anyone of Mr Amstell’s potential entitlement, Mr Fraser had been "materially misleading", he added.

"The decision not to disclose the material was a conscious and deliberate decision, which was unjustified in the circumstances.

"Mr Fraser treated this as a commercial venture and...acted in a belligerent and provocative manner which appears to be intended to run up costs and bring pressure to bear on Mr Amstell to withdraw or settle the claim.

"There was a specific and deliberate intention to run this litigation as disproportionately, obstructively and expensively as possible."

Mrs Amstell and her husband, jazz musician Barnet "Billy" Amstell, married in 1938, having met at Pinewood Studios, where she was an aspiring actor and model.

However, they lost touch with many of their family in their later years and lived out their final days at Bushey House Care Home, in north London.

In 2009, before her death in 2011, widowed Mrs Amstell made the will, naming her niece Marion Finn as executrix and nephew Martin Amstell as main beneficiary. 

Mrs Finn had long cared for the elderly couple, but did not immediately apply for a grant of probate of the final will, having mislaid the original. Instead, she continued to look after the house, clearing mail.

Mr Fraser, a partner in heir hunting firm Fraser & Fraser, first learned of the seemingly abandoned house in 2016 before trying to track down distant family. 

He was named as the administrator in December 2016, despite being told repeatedly from July onwards by both Mrs Finn and Mr Amstell that there was in fact a will and she had not died intestate.

It was only when a copy of the will was finally found that Mr Fraser agreed to stop the house being auctioned off in February 2017.

He then set about trying to investigate the circumstances surrounding the making of the will, and only finally dropped his case when he "hoisted the white flag for commercial reasons" a year later, the judge said.

Representing Mr Amstell, Dov Ohrenstein said Mr Fraser knew full well of Mr Amstell's claim when he took over administration of the estate. He added: "If he is left out of pocket, that is entirely his fault."

Ruling on the case, Judge Gerald said Mr Fraser "never should have been granted" letters of administration over the estate, and that his investigations into whether the 2009 will was valid had been launched "on no factual basis at all".

Mr Fraser was offered the chance to settle the dispute but instead "ramped up the agitation and costs", only to give up £100,000 and 12 months later, he said.

"Heir hunters do serve a valuable service because there are cases where people disappear from view as a beneficiary," the judge said.

But he added: "If that is your line of business, it has to be appreciated that all applications have got to be dealt with with the utmost probity and care."