A former cleaner has won a High Court battle against her stepson over a £43 million inheritance left by her late husband, Richard Scott.
Scott, who died in 2018 at the age of 81, amassed his wealth running the UK’s second-largest car boot fair on his “vast” Cheshire farm, which also served as the filming location for ITV’s Car Boot Challenge.
After his death, a legal dispute erupted over control of his estate. His widow, Jennifer Scott, has now secured the right to keep the inheritance following the High Court ruling.
Adam Scott, the eldest and “favourite” of Richard’s 19 children, argued he had dedicated four decades to working on the farm from the age of nine, having been promised he would inherit everything.
However, Richard married Jennifer — previously his cleaner and 28 years younger — in 2016 after his first wife died, and subsequently cut Adam out of the will.
Adam, now 62, attempted to stop the marriage, appearing at the registry office to claim Richard lacked the capacity to wed due to dementia. He also tried to have his father sectioned.
In court, Adam maintained that his father was not mentally sound when he signed his final two wills, citing his diagnosis with fronto-temporal dementia (FTD) in 2011. The court heard that Richard was barely able to communicate by the time the wills were made.
Adam’s legal team argued he had been promised control of the “vast” farm, which he would acquire at probate value, allowing his siblings to benefit “either by rental income or a lump sum paid.” They said he had been encouraged to commit to “a life of hard and unrelenting physical work” based on those assurances.
But Jennifer’s lawyers said Richard fully understood his decisions when disinheriting Adam, noting the father-son relationship had “completely broken down” after Adam allegedly tried to get Richard sectioned. They also highlighted that Adam had already received more than £10 million in land and property.
Earlier wills recorded assurances that Adam could secure a 40-year rent on parts of the farm and purchase them at probate value. However, Justice Jonathan Richards ruled that Richard had clearly withdrawn these promises in later wills made in 2003 and 2007, and that Adam was aware of his father’s change of intention, yet continued working on the farm.
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