A 68-year-old man has been given a six year jail sentence after admitting abusing his position of trust as the executor of the will of his late wife.

Widower Peter Tuckwell discovered that the Campden Hill, Ilmington home he had lived in with his late wife Susan had not been put into their joint names.

So, fearing he would lose the south Warwickshire home because of his wife’s will, Tuckwell illegally tried to avoid that by registering ownership of the house and raising a mortgage against it.

Tuckwell had pleaded not guilty at Warwick Crown Court to a charge of fraud by abuse of a position of trust as the executor of the will, between May 2009 and June 2017.

But on the day of his trial last month, Tuckwell dramatically changed his plea to guilty.

And on Monday, February 11, a judge sentenced him to 75 months in prison for the offence.

The charge outlined that he had abused his position of trust as an executor, in which he was expected to safeguard, or not act against, the interests of the beneficiaries of a trust under the will.

It was said he did so by falsely representing a ‘deed of appointment’ and by assuming and registering ownership of the house and raising a mortgage against the property.

The court heard Tuckwell had lived at the property since he married his wife in 1991, and had sold his own former home to put money into the property.

But on his wife’s death, he found that in fact it was not jointly owned – and he feared losing his own assets as a result.

Tom Walking, prosecuting, told the judge at the January hearing: “This was a man under extraordinary pressure who acted in an extraordinary way.

“It has always been our case that this was a man who was afraid of losing his home.”

After handing Tuckwell the jail sentence the judge added in the Warwick Crown Court hearing on Monday that another charge should lie on file.

READ MORE: Widower feared losing home