Woman Admits Forging Will Leaving Her House in Chiswick

Kamarah Graham-York had lived there with her partner for thirty years

A 66-year-old woman has been found guilty at Isleworth Crown Court of faking a document which appeared to make her the owner of a house in Chiswick.

Kamarah Graham-York, who used to work as a singer, had lived in the six bedroomed semi-detached property on Marlborough Road with her partner Norton Brian York, a musician and music promoter, since 1983. They had lived together since 1976 but never married and the property and the mortgage was in Mr York’s name.

The disputed property on Marlborough Road

When he died in 2009 there was a substantial amount of mortgage arrears on the property and the Leeds Building Society pursued Mr York’s son Adrian to force a sale. Adrian York was Mrs Graham-York’s stepson. As the case proceeded Mrs. Graham-York made a claim to the ownership of a share of the property based on her long-term residence and was granted a 25% interest in the property. She appealed the decision saying that she should have been entitled to 50% of the value before the payment of the amounts owed to the building society but this was rejected. She had no source of income and was eventually evicted from the home along with her son and daughter aged 40 and 39.

In addition she made a claim to the probate court based on a document she says she found in 2010 between books on a shelf in the house bequeathing the property to her. Adrian York said that the signature on the document bore no relation to that of his father.

If successful the claim would have meant that she was entitled to all the proceeds of the sale of the property after the mortgage arrears and costs were cleared. The house was sold for £1.9 million in January 2017 and the net proceeds are believed to have been in the region of £900,000. She pleaded guilty to fraud and was given a two year suspended jail sentence.

February 13, 2018