Will writer jailed for "invalid wills" fraud

A will writer from Berkshire has been jailed for 14 months for fraud, after he sent letters to clients warning them of a change in the law which had invalidated their wills, and offering to change them at a cost. Ventraglia’s letters offered to remedy his clients’ wills at a cost of between £30 and £60, and the whole fraud netted him only a few thousand pounds, which the Court confiscated.
The fraud was spotted by a client who reported Walter Ventriglia to Bracknell Forest Council's trading standards office and to the local probate office, both of whom warned him to stop. But he did not; in fact he issued a second run of letters making the false claims.
In July this year, Bracknell Forest brought a prosecution against him, by which time he was thought to have defrauded up to 130 clients, mostly in south-east England. In August at Reading Crown Court he was jailed for 14 months.
Ventriglia also operated a will storage business called UK Will Register. The company's promotional literature claimed that clients' documents were stored in a secure London facility. In fact, trading standards officers found the wills packed in an airing cupboard at his home.