Eight days before their mother died, Lisa Baverstock guided mother Margaret’s hand to disinherit brother John – he has now told of his disbelief after footage of the moment emerged
A brother has told of his disbelief after footage emerged of his sister ‘guiding’ his mother’s hand to change her will.
Electrician John Baverstock has just won a £700,000 legal battle with younger sister, Lisa, who told him their 76-year-old mum Margaret had ‘left him nothing’. He could barely believe it when a video emerged showing Lisa, 55, propelling Margaret’s hand to sign a new will just eight days before she died.
It left the entire £700,000 estate to her, but a court ruled in his favour, splitting the estate between the two siblings, with Lisa left to pay John’s estimated £80,000 legal costs. “I didn’t think she was capable of this,” said John, 61. “Clearly Lisa had done it to cover her tracks and make it look legal. I felt embarrassed for my sister.”
The bitter battle at central London county court has torn the family apart. John feels that he has not just lost his mother, but his sister as well.
“Only the year before Mum passed, it was me, her, my sister and my cousin over at my mum’s for Christmas dinner, and everything was all right,” he said. Margaret raised him and his sister after their parents divorced. She later moved into a three-bedroom home in Herne Hill, south London.
In 2014, she was diagnosed with dementia. John had been living with her briefly at the time. In 2019, Lisa, a coach driver, moved in to provide full-time care for Margaret. John moved half an hour away and would regularly see his mother, visiting on average once a week. But in 2021, his relationship with his sister soured over what he described as a misunderstanding. Lisa received an email requesting a property sales pack, the documents homeowners need to provide if they want to sell their home. She assumed her brother had requested it and accused him of trying to sell Margaret’s home under her nose.
John told the Sunday Times: “I called Action Fraud because I thought it was a scam.” Lisa did not believe him and demanded he hand over his set of keys to Margaret’s home. The two had a “shouting match” in the hall. “It was all very upsetting, giving the keys back and fighting,” he said.
After seeing the videos, provided by Lisa, High Court Judge Jane Evans-Gordon said she was satisfied that Margaret “had no idea what was going on” at the time the document was signed. Lisa told the court that she had given up everything to care for Margaret, claiming that her brother “could not be bothered” and that she “cried on the phone to come down and give me respite”.
John’s legal team said that independent carers paid for by the local authority and by Margaret came in two or three times a day to bathe and feed her. He also felt it was hard to carry out such tasks as a man. Representing herself in court, Lisa claimed that the will “was basically how my mother wanted her wishes done”, adding: “She didn’t want my brother to inherit anything and made that perfectly clear to me over the course of the years.” But John ‘happily’ spent week nights with his mum during the last years of her life.
The judge ruled that Margaret’s will was invalid. With no other known will in existence, it meant Margaret died intestate and as a result her two children must split her £700,000 assets down the middle. Experts say up to 10,000 wills are disputed each year. Most are settled before they come to court. About 200 go all the way to court annually. John used his pension pot to go to court, and intends to leave some of his money to his son and grandson. The Mirror tried to reach Lisa Baverstock for a comment.
