Miller/ Woor Heir Hunters

Welcome to Heir Hunters where we follow the search for relatives

of people who've died without leaving a will

hoping to unite them with forgotten fortunes.

A team of Heir Hunters is chasing through the leafy lanes of Surrey,

hunting for people due a small fortune.

I'm too old to be running. Are you Natalie?

They're looking for relatives who have no idea they may be in line for a windfall.

Could they be knocking at your door?

On today's programme, the Heir Hunters tackle a highly unusual case...

The difficulty in this case is the fact that he died seven or eight years ago.

..that leads them from one young man's tragedy to its chilling consequences.

I just think it's really sad that someone with so much potential,

that life ended like that. It's really sad.

And the fascinating story of how this man's talent took him to the giddy heights of the art world.

He restored for Christie's, Sotheby's, all the major people.

And I'll be meeting up with the Heir Hunters who helped me map out my family tree.

That would make him being born?

Oh, my maths is awful.

Plus how you could be entitled to unclaimed estates where heirs still need to be found.

Could you be in line for a cash payout?

Every year in the UK, it's estimated that over 300,000 people die without leaving a will.

If no relatives are found, then any money they've left behind will go to the government.

And last year, that was a staggering £14 million.

But over 30 specialist firms are competing to stop this happening.

They're the Heir Hunters and they try to track down missing relatives

and help them claim their rightful inheritance.

Putting families back together, cousins who haven't seen each other for 30, 40 years,

this is the whole thing about the job which I love.

Heir Hunters often bring joy to people, reuniting families

who've lost touch over time,

but sometimes their investigations can uncover a life story

that's far from happy.

It's 7am in London.

Overnight, the Treasury has released their weekly list of unclaimed estates.

In the offices of Fraser & Fraser...

We need the death certificate on that.

..partner Charles Fraser is scanning the options.

We've got a nice, short list today, so there are probably about four cases we'll look at.

Case manager David Pacifico is shocked by one of the names on the list.

-Have you got a birth for him?

-Yeah.

Brett Peter Miller who died in 2003.

We've got one born in 1964 here.

Getting younger and younger.

Brett Miller, seen here in his 20s, was just 39 when he died.

He worked as an electrical engineer.

We were doing charades there, weren't we?

Alison is not a blood relative, but married into the family.

That's his most favourite photo that I used to show to all his girlfriends.

She and her daughter Rachel knew Brett as a teenager.

Brett was very friendly and he was very outgoing.

He tried hard, you know, to help anybody.

He used to make you laugh all the time.

He was a really funny person.

I've got a lot of nice little memories of him,

my ex-husband and him dancing around in the living room after we'd had a little party,

then falling through my room divider with my favourite ornaments,

knocking it over and just breaking all my ornaments.

But he managed to chat his way out of that as well.

He may have been a charmer, but sometimes Alison saw a darker side to his personality.

Occasionally, he had his moments when he was quite a rebel,

but generally, he was a really lovely, outgoing, friendly person.

At the time Brett died, he was living in a Housing Association flat.

Nobody thought he had any money.

Sometimes when names appear on the Treasury list,

it's because money has come to light or an investment has matured.

At this stage, the Heir Hunters know nothing about Brett and have no leads as to the value of his estate.

Brett Peter Miller, probably small value.

The minimum amount needed to make it on to the list is £5,000.

Heir Hunters work on commission, taking a percentage of the money received by each heir they sign.

They need a good-sized estate to cover costs.

But in this case, they have a trump card.

Although the surname Miller is common, the combination of Brett and Miller is unusual.

We look to see if there's any close kin, even if it may be low value.

With a name like Brett Miller, it's easy to identify,

easy to identify marriages...

..and also whether he had siblings.

David is disturbed by Brett's early death.

He was only 39 when he died. Most of our deceased are much older.

It will be interesting to see the cause of death on this one.

David has Brett's last known address in Surrey

and he's hoping neighbours may remember something about him.

-He gives travelling Heir Hunter Bob Barratt a call.

-Good morning, Bob.

-Hello, David.

Bob is one of the company's experienced mobile Heir Hunters.

Every Thursday, they take to the road, poised to follow the leads, ordering certificates...

-Thanks very much.

-..and canvassing neighbours...

-Mrs Holman?

-Yes.

-Thank you.

-..intent on staying one step ahead of the competition

and getting to the people who are the rightful heirs.

We've got Miller in Surrey. Brett Peter Miller.

I'm afraid he's much younger than us. It's a Housing Association, by the way, this address.

-Right.

-We're looking for near kin.

Thanks, Bob. Bye.

Right.

I'm going over to Deepcut to try and make some inquiries with regard to Brett Miller

who died back in 2003 and wasn't very old.

My guess is there's probably a tale there.

I'll start off by seeing whether the neighbours can tell me anything - was he married, did he have children?

While Bob makes his way to the last registered address for Brett Miller,

in the office, the research team are starting to draw up a family tree.

-Have you got a birth for him?

-Yeah.

-Where is it for?

-Windsor.

-Can you check for any near kin on that?

-Yeah.

Heir Hunters use these documents to guide them through the twists and turns of families.

They break down every generation until they find the rightful heirs.

And Dave was right. Brett's name has been easy to research.

That's in Kensington and Chelsea.

When's that birth? 1999?

James Harry. So this could be a child.

In just 20 minutes of research, they've made a startling discovery.

Brett was married to Trudi in 1986 when he was just 22 years old.

The couple went on to have a son, James.

If they were still married when Brett died, then his wife Trudi will be first in line to inherit.

But first they need some more facts.

There's two things here. Firstly, is the wife still alive?

If so, was she still married to him? Possibility of divorce, then she doesn't come into it.

If Brett has divorced Trudi,

that means the next in line to inherit will be his son James.

The child might come into it unless the child was adopted out.

Sometimes when partners remarry, a child can be adopted by the new step-parent.

This could have happened to James which means the next in line to inherit will be Brett's parents

if they're still alive.

-Do you know what the parents' names are?

-Not yet.

If one of you can look up a birth on this, see if there's a birth on that one there...

Using the birth records, the researchers find

that Brett's parents were Sidney Miller and Marlene Starkey.

He also had three brothers. If the parents have passed away, they could be next in line to inherit.

Possible child. If not, it could be parents.

If not, there's a brother,

so we've got a choice of potentially near kin here.

It's only eight o'clock in the morning and they have a family tree,

but to crack this, they need to speak directly to a family member.

The researchers are trawling local Surrey directories when Debbie strikes gold.

They have found a phone number for a woman who was married to one of Brett's brothers in the 1980s.

David, I've got the ex-wife of the brother of the deceased on the phone.

-How do you know it's the ex-wife?

-She's remarried.

It's the break they're looking for.

She's not a blood relative and not entitled, but maybe she'll know how to find James.

-She'll know what happened.

-Yeah.

-Right.

David gets straight on the phone to her.

Sorry to trouble you so early in the morning.

I'm not sure if you're aware that Brett passed away some years ago.

We're trying to track down his next of kin.

But it's not good news.

Right. No idea whereabouts?

It's so long since she divorced Brett's brother, the ex-wife has lost touch with the entire family.

But she was able to fill them in on how Brett died

and it's left Dave stunned.

The deceased committed suicide, yeah.

Why? Do you know?

Whatever it is, committing suicide is a very desperate and final thing to do, isn't it?

It's profoundly sad.

Brett was just 39 years old when he died.

What drove him to something so extreme?

And as his death was eight years ago,

why has he suddenly cropped up on the Treasury list of unclaimed estates?

The researchers are desperately looking for a family member who can help answer these questions.

-Get David to phone the ex-wife.

-Yeah.

In the search, they've stumbled upon another ex-wife of another of Brett's brothers.

Alison's on the phone, so you can give her a call and see where the ex-husband is.

Not another! They're all married and all divorced.

This is a crucial call.

Will this other ex-wife know the answers to who is entitled?

Can she confirm that Brett's parents are alive?

Hello. Is that a Mrs Miller?

Or whether his son James has been adopted out of the family?

I mean, James was born in 1990.

But then she drops a bombshell which changes everything.

But you don't know the names of the children or the girlfriend?

This call seems to have opened a whole new can of worms.

It's a bit complicated. Thank you very much indeed, Mrs Miller.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

She confirmed that Brett was divorced from Trudi, although they don't know what happened to Trudi.

He also had another girlfriend with whom he had two children, but no idea who they are.

This is more research they didn't see coming.

They can't locate Brett's ex-wife Trudi

and without a marriage certificate, how will they locate the name and address of his girlfriend?

Dave gives travelling Heir Hunter Bob Barratt a call.

-'Hi, Bob.'

-Hi.

-'This is getting more complicated.

-'He's supposed to have had a girlfriend with two children as well.'

-Right.

So now they've got three children that could be heirs,

but no way of contacting the mothers.

The phone call did rule out Brett's parents Sidney and Marlene as they have both passed away.

So now it's vital that they find either Trudi, Brett's ex-wife, or his former girlfriend.

Bob is left pondering the news.

His girlfriend has no entitlement,

but all his children from his marriage or his girlfriend will be entitled.

I'll see what I can find out by knocking at one of these neighbours.

This is a long shot. Brett lived here in 2003.

No luck. I'll try round the corner.

Will anyone remember anything about a neighbour from that long ago?

I've only lived here three years.

I'm trying to find out something about a neighbour that used to live upstairs.

No joy here either.

Thanks ever so much. Cheers.

No luck. No-one's lived here long enough to have known Mr Miller.

I'd better tell them in the office and see what else they want me to do.

But while Bob has hit a brick wall,

in the office, there's been a massive breakthrough.

Researcher Alan has been looking at birth records.

He has found Brett's two children.

He's on the birth certificate as the father.

And their mother's name Natalie is also on the register. From there, he's found a current address.

Natalie holds the key to cracking the case.

She was living with the deceased until his death.

They desperately need to speak to Natalie, but they must tread carefully.

Her and Brett's children are young teenagers.

Travelling Heir Hunter Bob Barratt has been sent to Natalie's house.

Do you think she'll be back in a bit?

She's not in, but she should be back soon from the school run.

Bob might think he's in for a quick kip, but there's no rest for the wicked.

The neighbour has indicated that Natalie is about to walk down the road, so I'd better go and see her.

Have they found Natalie?

I'm too old to be running.

Could this woman be the key to unlocking the case?

-Coming up, the chase is on, but have they been barking up the wrong tree?

-I don't know.

Are you Natalie?

And what happened to Brett and his family?

He loved his children. You know, he loved James.

He was very proud of him.

Heir Hunters solve thousands of cases a year

and millions of pounds are paid out to rightful heirs,

but not every case can be cracked.

The Treasury has a database of over 2,000 names

that have baffled the Heir Hunters and remain unsolved.

This is known as the Bona Vacantia list.

Bona Vacantia is the Latin term for ownerless property.

There's two main types.

There's the property of now-dissolved companies

and the estates of those who die without a valid will or entitled kin.

Are today's cases relatives of yours?

Could you be in line for hundreds, thousands, or even millions of pounds?

Terpsithea Ellinas died in Southall, Middlesex on 23 November 2003.

Both of Terpsithea's names are Greek.

Did you know Terpsithea?

Did she ever speak to you about any family she had here or in Greece?

Charlotte Titchiner passed away in Upminster, Essex.

She died on 10 October 1998.

Titchiner is a very rare surname

with only around a dozen people in a million with the name.

Do you share the surname Titchiner?

Could Charlotte be a relative of yours?

Does the name Samuel Archibald Illingworth ring any bells?

Samuel died on 25 January 2002 in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

Samuel's last name Illingworth comes from that area.

Were you a friend or neighbour of Samuel's?

Can you help solve his case?

Those names again.

Terpsithea Ellinas,

Charlotte Titchiner,

and Samuel Illingworth.

If any of today's names are relatives of yours

then you could be entitled to their unclaimed estate.

Our next case involves a man from Essex who was blessed with

an artistic talent, but who died without leaving a will.

In every family, there are secrets waiting to be uncovered,

but not all of them are tragic.

In some cases, in their hunt to find the heirs, the researchers discover fascinating stories

of people whose lives straddled key moments in history.

Fraser & Fraser case manager Dave Slee found this when he investigated the fascinating life

of art restorer John Woor.

Of course, my ears pricked up at the thought that these might be valuable paintings.

John Woor, seen here in the only photo that exists of him,

was 87 when he passed away.

He lived in this modest, semi-detached rented cottage in Essex.

Inside, it had been stripped bare, except for hundreds of oil paintings.

And with rumour of hidden funds amounting to £13,000 in a bank account,

Dave suspected that there could be rich pickings.

It all started when a neighbour got in touch.

She believed that the deceased had died without leaving a will

and that his house, though he didn't own his own home,

contained a number of artefacts, including a number of what she thought may be valuable paintings.

Art gallery owner Derek Sorrell knew John for 30 years of his life.

He first met him when he came into his gallery.

John was an extremely kind man, extremely kind to all of my family.

He taught my son to restore.

My son started when he was 16 years of age and John taught him for 20-odd years.

And he was a character.

John never spoke of his family, but he did tell Derek about his wife Madeleine

and how his life changed after her death.

His home was a nice home when his wife was alive

and after she died, John stripped the home of everything -

all furniture, all carpets, everything out of the property,

and lived very, very basically from then on in.

Because of John's solitary existence,

his £13,000 estate, including what could be valuable paintings, lay unclaimed.

But Dave Slee was determined to find a rightful heir.

I was fortunate that the neighbour knew the deceased very well.

The deceased had told her that he was married during his lifetime,

that his wife pre-deceased him and they had no children.

Dave's next step was to look for brothers or sisters.

John Woor was born in 1923 in Edmonton, North London,

so I undertook a search for birth records

and I established that the deceased had a sister called Eunice,

but she didn't in fact survive infancy.

Dave was able to draw up the first stage of John Woor's family tree.

His parents were James Woor and Mary Ann Farrow.

Dave knew that he would have to look further back, hoping to find cousins who might be in line to inherit,

and he had an advantage.

This is an estate where I had the luxury of researching a fairly uncommon surname in Woor,

so firstly, our research was on the paternal family, the Woor side.

In fact, the name Woor is incredibly rare.

There are just two in a million. The largest concentration of them seem to be in East Anglia.

John Woor certainly had lots of ties to this area.

And Dave was to discover that during the war years, even his regiment had links.

John Woor was just 16 when World War Two broke out.

As soon as he was old enough, he volunteered to join the army

and in 1944, he was transferred to the 2nd Battalion Suffolk.

John's battalion was sent to Asia

where they became involved in policing the post-war independence of India.

Attlee's government decided to partition India into two countries.

The Muslims were given modern-day Pakistan in the north

and the Hindus were given India to the south.

Suddenly, those two countries come into being.

They have no working government, no economies. It was a disaster.

And when the borders were drawn up, millions of people found themselves displaced.

There are at least 15 million refugees who suddenly have to leave their homes,

go into countries they've never been in before,

all just for the sake of what religion they happen to believe in.

24-year-old John Woor and his battalion witnessed communities being torn apart

and conflicts about property and religion were rife.

Anything up to two million people were killed.

With a nation in upheaval, it was up to the British soldiers like John to try and keep the peace.

The role that 2nd Suffolk were playing of internal security,

people like John, it was a very important job

because there were signs of anarchy, the whole country was falling apart,

and the idea of walking away and leaving them was something the British didn't want to do.

But with dwindling post-war resources and millions of people to police,

John and his fellow infantrymen were fighting a losing battle.

In the end, there is no option.

There are simply not enough British soldiers to keep the warring factions apart.

In the end, the 2nd Suffolk are withdrawn with all the other British army units and sent home,

but at the time, they did their best in very difficult circumstances.

John's time in India was extreme and shocking.

And the experiences would have stayed with him until the end of his life.

In London, case manager Dave Slee was still trying to find heirs to his small fortune of £13,000.

Dave was poised to work up the father's side of the family tree.

Little did he know, he would discover a family forced apart by poverty and strife.

John Woor's family is still a mystery

and the Heir Hunters need to further construct the family tree

to lead them to any heirs.

So how do you go about drawing up your own family tree

and what's the best place to start with genealogical research?

'In order to find out I'm meeting Heir Hunter Neil, as I can't see the wood for the family trees.'

So what's the first step in building your family tree?

The first tip I always give is to get the biggest piece of paper you can find

-and go and speak to the oldest person of the family you can find.

-OK.

And start asking them about what they remember about their family.

Obviously it's just the same as your family,

but the older the generation, the more they're going to know.

They're going to know possibly about their grandparents

whereas you probably won't know about your great-grandparents.

Sounds like a good starting point for any budding genealogists

interested in their ancestors.

But what about the pros who do this for a living?

So how do Heir Hunters draw up a family tree?

We're very particular about how we draw our family trees because

our family trees are looked at by lots of different members

of our staff so it's important we follow

a couple of uniform rules. So we would start with a

single person in the middle of the page.

We then go up and find their parents.

We'd follow those rules all the way.

It just means that anyone from anywhere in the office

can have a look at the family tree and it should be quite clear

and they should be able to tell instantly what the relationship is

back to the deceased.

'I asked Neil to help me construct a family tree.'

As this isn't a real heir hunt we're going for a more traditional

tree with me at the bottom and then working our way up.

Neil needs to know everything I know about my family.

-You put yourself down.

-Yeah.

-We then put your parents down.

-OK.

So there's Julie and David.

Now do you have any brothers and sisters?

Yes, sister Victoria.

-Do you know your grandparent's names on your father's side?

-Yes.

They're Betty and Norman.

Do you know your grandmother's maiden name?

I think it was Morton.

"Think" in family history unfortunately is not very good.

-It's where we have to start getting the proofs, the documentation.

-OK.

One of those documentations which we use all the time,

that people have to use to trace their family tree,

is the certificates.

We're quite lucky. We have your grandparents' marriage certificates

here in front of us.

And it says your grandfather, Norman Leslie Faulkner,

-and your grandmother, Betty Morton.

-Betty Morton.

So you were right with the surname. Her surname is Morton,

but obviously now on our family tree

we're going to start filling in some of the details

from this certificate.

OK. And this is them on their wedding day.

So this photo was taken when this bit of the certificate was filled out.

So for the family tree we've got Norman Leslie Faulkner,

-so we'd put down Norman Leslie Faulkner.

-Right.

-It's important to start recording all the details on the tree now.

-OK.

Certificates of birth, death and marriage are crucial

to filling in the gaps on anyone's family tree.

The details they contain are indispensable to the Heir Hunters.

If you look in the first column, that gives us the date,

and that date is when they got married.

-That was...

-August 24...

-1940.

Each column in the marriage certificate has a specific piece of information in it.

In one it lists my grandparents' ages when they were married.

Very helpful to Neil.

From their ages and the date of the marriage

we can work out when we think they're going to be born

or when-abouts.

The age for your grandfather, he's 28 years old,

and that would make him being born...?

Oh, my maths is awful!

-1912?

-Yes.

Forgetting my maths for a moment, Neil ploughs ahead.

The other columns tell me that my grandparents were considered

a spinster and a bachelor.

Basically it means that this was their first marriage.

It also lists their occupations and place of residence.

We then get on to something which is very important,

which is column number seven. Column number seven

is the father's name and surname.

This is your great-grandfather's name.

-That is Thomas Faulkner.

-Right.

-So we've got our next bit to put on the family tree.

-Yeah.

As my family tree grows so does my knowledge of my distant kin.

All marriages require two witnesses to sign the certificate.

One of these witnesses advances our tree even further.

One of the witnesses here, we've got the Faulkner name,

Amelia Anne Faulkner.

We're automatically going to be looking, as we start researching,

into the Faulkner family

-to see if we've got this Amelia Anne Faulkner.

-Yeah.

If we do we're going to know straightaway that she's alive in 1940.

It's amazing. This is fascinating to me.

It's one of the big joys and thrills of actually

tracing your own family tree.

We're already up to your great-grandfather Thomas.

What we're going to try to do now

is to expand out.

In order to do this Neil has dug out details of my

grandfather Norman's birth.

We already know his father, my great-grandfather,

was Thomas Faulkner

but this birth also gives my great-grandmother's maiden name.

His mother's maiden name is Bryant. BRYANT.

So we can add that now to our family tree.

That Amelia Anne sort of rings a bell.

She's a witness here in this 1940 marriage.

There she is - Amelia Anne.

Your great-grandmother was alive in 1940,

even though your great-grandfather had passed away,

at the marriage of your grandparents.

So witnesses are very important.

In just a matter of minutes the paternal line of my family has been

laid out in front of me.

It's a truly fascinating process

that I recommend to anyone.

Here are some more unsolved cases where heirs still need to be found.

The List Of Unclaimed Estates is money that is owed to

members of the public. New names are added all the time.

The Bona Vacantia unclaimed list

is a list of cases that we haven't found kin for.

The list goes back to 1997 because that's when

our case management system came online.

The idea is to produce a list of all those solvent cases,

so there should be at least a few thousand here, possibly many thousands.

Do these names mean anything to you? Are they relatives of yours?

Michael Pearse O'Hanlon died in April 2008 in Southampton.

The surname O'Hanlon is of Irish origin

and is very rare in the UK

with just five people in a million with that name.

Do you share Michael's unusual surname of O'Hanlon?

Could you be related to him?

Thomas Edward Ladbrooke died on 1 September 2010

in Cricklewood in London.

Thomas' ancestors could have been from the village of Ladbroke

in Warwickshire, or from Norfolk where the name is also found.

Do you remember Thomas?

Could you be a family member

and therefore entitled to a share of his estate?

Martha Zavril died on 29 March 2000 in Harrogate.

I've got Martha's death certificate here.

It contains a lot more information about her.

It says she was born on 6 May 1909 in Austria.

Did you know Martha? Did she ever talk to you

about any family over here or in Austria?

The death certificate also reveals that Martha's maiden name

was Forstner. Did you have a Forstner back in your family?

Could you help solve this case?

A reminder of those names again.

Michael O'Hanlon,

Thomas Ladbrooke,

and Martha Zavril.

If today's names are relatives of yours then you could

have a windfall coming your way.

Let's return to the case of art restorer John Woor.

Can the Heir Hunters find living relatives entitled to inherit his money?

Dave Slee was hoping to crack John's case. He died in Basildon in Essex

at the age of 87.

Without any obvious heirs, all of his small fortune of £13,000 would go to the Treasury,

but not if Dave could help it.

He was keen to take advantage of John Woor's extremely rare surname.

We decided to concentrate firstly our research on the paternal family

because the surname is relatively uncommon.

Dave was desperately hoping that John's father James Woor would have siblings

who would be John's uncles and aunts.

The deceased father was named James Woor. He in turn was the son of James Woor.

And he was one of five children.

But would any of James Woor's brothers or sisters have produced children that could be heirs?

Two of them, one called Luke Woor and one called Alice Georgiana Woor, had descendants.

Dave decided to focus on Luke Woor first.

Once again I've been blessed with not only a good surname in Woor,

but Luke is a fairly unusual Christian name.

And so we located Luke Woor's marriage.

Dave traced Luke's descendants and discovered his first heir -

Luke's grandson, John Reeve.

He is a first cousin once removed

to John Woor and an heir to his estate.

A keen family historian, he was amazed and excited when he was contacted by the Heir Hunters.

John James Woor is a name that didn't mean anything to me at all,

although I'd researched a little bit about the Woor family.

John had been very close to his grandfather, Luke Woor.

I knew quite a lot about him, but he didn't mention anything about any brothers or sisters,

which I've found out since that he had. So the whole thing is a mystery.

John Reeve's grandfather Luke, who was John Woor's uncle,

had been hiding a dreadful secret from his childhood,

something which might explain why the family lost touch.

My grandfather, Luke Woor, spent a considerable number of years when he was younger in an orphanage.

In the late Victorian era, families that had fallen on hard times were often put in the poorhouse,

but in the case of Luke Woor, he and his siblings were put in a children's home

while their father went in search of work.

When they were old enough, they left the orphanage to find work.

John wonders if that's what happened to John Woor's father.

I'm just wondering if his father did contact him at any point

and said, "You're old enough. We've got a job for you in London. Come down and help me out."

And at that point, of course, my grandfather Luke would have still been in the orphanage,

so he would have lost contact with James. And, likewise, when my grandfather left the orphanage,

he probably didn't tell anybody where he went.

With such humble origins, John was genuinely stunned to learn of his cousin once removed, John Woor,

and his history.

I had assumed he would either be a labourer or working on the land

because all the family I'd been able to trace had some connection with the countryside.

John Woor's travels with the Army and part in the radical restructuring of India

were just one aspect of his life.

Some time between 1947 and the 1950s John retrained as a fine art restorer.

Nick Sangari worked with John in the 1950s

at the prestigious Hahn and Sons.

We worked for some of the top London galleries.

One memory I have of working at Christie's the auctioneers.

They had a painting there by Burne-Jones. It was approximately 24 feet by 12.

And to reach the top we had, obviously, to get on a step ladder to work on it.

And to novice Nick senior restorer John Woor was a master at his art.

John was a talented restorer.

He had a good eye for detail.

In the 1980s, John told his friend Derek Sorrell all about the calibre of work he took on.

John restored a Rembrandt,

which was a panel.

And there was only the head left on the panel.

So the head had to be re-set into another panel.

I know he did different frescos around the country at times.

Paintings like this are good examples of John's work.

His small estate and collection of paintings found in his house came to £13,000.

Heir Hunter Dave Slee spent weeks researching both sides of the family

and was amazed at the number of heirs he eventually tracked down.

We've located in excess of 40 beneficiaries, all round the world, Australia and America.

Heir John Reeve is on his way to Hertfordshire to meet Derek.

It's an exciting moment for him.

He's about to find out more about his illustrious cousin once removed, John Woor.

-Hi there. I'm Derek.

-I'm John.

-Welcome. Come in, come in.

It's the first time he'll see his cousin's work.

This is a little picture here that he restored for me 25 years ago

by quite a famous artist called George Charlton.

The little picture behind you there is actually by John himself.

That's one he painted himself and the one over there, which is in the manner of Seurat,

is one he did for me years ago,

which is really an amazing little piece of art.

John is thrilled to know there is such a talented artist in the Woor clan.

-That's phenomenal.

-Is it?

-Because we have nobody with any talent, as far as I know,

on that side of the family. All the photos I've got of the family show labourers

and people working on the farm.

Derek has quite a few of John's paintings and they're a good example of his versatility.

This is one John did for me years ago when I was into Russell Flints.

This is all pencil. John had an amazing amount of talent.

There's very little he couldn't paint if he wanted to paint.

It's really good to actually see some of the things he produced

-and how wonderful they are.

-John, you're welcome to take a few home

-then you've got a few in the family.

-Well, that's...

That's very kind because that would be the only tactile thing we've got as any remembrance.

-Yeah.

-This one in particular, this is a brilliant piece of work.

-Yeah.

-You're more than welcome.

-Thank you very much indeed.

For John Reeve, meeting Derek and finding out about John Woor has been a real eye-opener.

It's nice to know what a great man he was. To actually see the variety of paintings that he's produced

and he was absolutely prolific and spent most of his life doing landscapes and charcoal.

Nothing like I imagined I was going to find out. He'd obviously contributed a lot to a lot of people

and he's done a lot in the life that he's had.

And I can now go home and tell the family and share it with everybody. Brilliant day.

John had a fascinating career as fine art restorer

but some in the trade crossed the line from restoration

to forgery.

I'm here to meet gallery owner Johnathan Brandler

who ran another gallery back in the 1960s

and can tell me about John's work,

but also a contemporary of John's who took on the art world.

John Woor worked at the Hahn Gallery in the 1950s and '60s,

what would he have been doing?

The Hahn Gallery were very high-end market.

He would have been cleaning and mending any pictures that they had bought

either at country house sales or in the big London auction houses

to make them presentable to the public. People didn't want to buy

pictures with all the dirt of ages on,

the smoke.

Don't forget, all the big houses, everybody had coal fires,

so you have all the coal smoke over the paintings making them

dark and dingy and brown.

He would have taken all that dirt off, mended any holes in the

canvases and he would have then made the pictures look attractive.

People at that time wanted pictures as if they'd come off

the artist's easel.

They didn't want any age showing.

They didn't want the cracks, they didn't want the patina of age.

They wanted things to look brand-new. They wanted crisp, clean lines.

Were there other people working with him in the gallery?

There was another guy there called Tom Keating.

Tom didn't stay at the Hahn Galleries all that long

because Tom fell out, I think, with the Hahn Galleries

because Tom used to enhance pictures.

Tom would think that if you had a nice traditional landscape

maybe you needed a pretty little girl in the corner,

or a child with a dog,

or a boy with a balloon, or something like that.

Art restorer Tom Keating was a self-taught artist like John

and by all accounts he was a charismatic and colourful man.

His tendency to enhance rather than restore paintings

eventually led to his leaving the gallery

but it set him on a completely new path instead.

Trouble is that Tom decided he wasn't getting the recognition

he deserved and the work that he did was never noticed

and because it wasn't noticed and he wasn't getting any recognition

he decided there might be more fun in life if he went out

and started doing the whole painting and not bothering

with an original painting to start with.

He went out, he collected old materials,

which were easy to find at that time just after the war.

He would do an awful lot of research in the local libraries

and he would find paintings that were known to exist,

but were missing.

His heroes were Turner and Constable

and Samuel Palmer.

So he did a lot of work in those three as well as others.

And he realised that nobody could tell the difference.

He would go to a saleroom, buy 50 old frames

and some of them would have gallery labels on the back.

So he would do a painting in the style of whatever the label said...

..put it in a frame, put it in a small auction house.

And he wasn't in it for the money. A lot of the forgers over the years

aren't in it for the money. They're in it for the recognition

that they are as good as their hero.

Tom as a forger wanted to fool people

who deserved to be fooled.

Who were his targets?

His targets were the stuffed shirts of the art world.

His targets were the people that thought they knew everything

and because they knew everything they could never get caught.

So he would do a painting,

he would put it in an old frame,

then he would take it into one of the Bond Street galleries

and say something like,

"I've found this in the attic. I've talked to a mate down the pub.

"He said it was valuable, so I've brought it up to London.

"Would you like it?"

The gallery would buy this picture for £200

and say, "Won't you take less?" "No."

"Oh, all right, we'll buy it off you."

And they'd sell it within a week for 20,000...

My gosh.

..because they weren't looking at it with an honest eye.

They were looking at it with a greedy eye.

And because they were the experts,

Tom got his pleasure not from the amount of money

he was putting in his back pocket,

Tom got his pleasure by fooling the so-called expert.

Tom started painting more and more forgeries.

The prolific nature of his work was what was to cause his downfall.

How was he eventually exposed?

He did too many in the same style.

A journalist for the Times, Geraldine Norman,

she wrote a book and she exposed him

because a gallery in London had got an exhibition of

Samuel Palmers, and there were just too many.

They were all the same, almost all the same.

And there were too many of them.

Samuel Palmer, obviously he painted his whole life,

but there aren't... It's not a huge number of works.

And to get 20, 30, 40 paintings by Samuel Palmer

in one room at one time is an impossibility.

But this gallery had them.

And it wasn't until somebody went in there and looked with an honest eye,

Geraldine Norman,

and then it was blindingly obvious.

-Right.

-And he got caught.

Now most crooks, because he was a crook,

would have done a runner. He had a house in Tenerife,

so he could have gone to Tenerife and never been found.

But, he didn't literally, but he virtually stood up

in the middle of Bond Street

and said, "You don't know what you're talking about. "You're supposed to be the expert.

"How can I, a self-taught artist, fool you that easily?"

Once exposed, Tom reached celebrity status.

He was widely written about and had television shows made about him

and his art.

The public viewed him as a Robin Hood figure of the art world,

because he'd fooled the dealers.

Tom's philosophy was, "It doesn't matter about the name attached

"to a painting, if it's good and makes you smile then it's art.

"End of discussion."

I think it's lovely. Tom is now better known

than a lot of the artists that he forged.

He wasn't trying to be dishonest to people who genuinely liked art,

he was only trying to be dishonest to people that were greedy about it.

So Tom Keatings now fetch thousands of pounds.

Tom Keating in his own right has become world famous.

It's a wonderful complete circle.

Finally, let's return to the case of Brett Miller.

Can the Heir Hunters make contact with his family

and conform they've identified the rightful heirs to Brett's estate?

Brett died tragically in 2003 when he committed suicide.

He was only 39 when he died. Very, very young.

The team have found out that Brett married Trudi in 1986

and had a son called James.

After divorcing Trudi, he then went on to live with Natalie and had two children,

a boy and a girl, who are now young teenagers.

-There's Brett at Dad's 40th.

-He looks like Barry Manilow!

Alison Miller was married to one of Brett's brothers.

She remembers Brett as a very young dad that was devastated when he split with his first wife, Trudi.

He was very upset about the split-up.

Very upset not to see his son as much as he'd like to.

He loved his children. You know, he loved James.

He was very proud of him.

He idolised him, really.

-There he is at my wedding.

-Aww, he looks very small there, doesn't he?

-Yeah.

He grew up so quickly.

Alison had known Brett from when he was a teenager and the news of his suicide left her reeling.

It was quite a shock. I had a phone call

and I was told that he'd been found dead in his flat,

which was very sad. Very sad.

I just think it's really sad that someone as young as him,

he wasn't REALLY young, but someone with so much potential,

you know, life ended like that.

-He was so cute.

-He looks beautiful.

-A sweetheart.

Brett died eight years ago in 2003

and his name has only just appeared on the Treasury list of unclaimed estates.

At the moment, the Heir Hunters have no idea why it's there or how much the estate is worth.

The minimum amount to qualify for the list is £5,000.

Brett's ex-girlfriend Natalie might know if he had money

and her children will also be entitled to a share of his estate,

but will the Heir Hunters be able to find her?

-I'm too old to be running!

-In Surrey, Heir Hunter Bob Barrett thought he had found her.

-Hello. Are you Natalie?

-But then...

-You're not Natalie Townsend.

But there is good news. It may have been a false start,

but now Bob's found the right address.

-Hello. Natalie Townsend?

-Yes.

-Hi, my name's Bob Barrett...

She is not entitled to inherit, but her and Brett's two children are.

-You had a relationship with a Mr Miller?

-Yes.

-Who died back in 2003.

-Yes.

-Did you have children with him?

-Yes.

-Well, we think they will be heirs to an estate that he's left.

-Right.

I don't quite understand how he died back in 2003

and the estate has only just come to notice.

And I can't tell you how much it is because I don't know. Would you know how he has left an estate?

-No.

-No.

Unfortunately, Natalie can't give them any reason why Brett's estate has been advertised now.

-So you've got no idea where this money might have come from?

-No idea.

Natalie agrees to sign with the company on behalf of her two children.

As they are minors, she will manage the inheritance until they are old enough.

Natalie was with Brett for 11 years, on and off.

He was a regular father. He always came to see the children after we'd split up.

But there was something about Brett that made family life difficult

and Natalie and the kids experienced it first-hand.

Most of the time it was good, but some of the time it was horrendous.

He was an alcoholic.

His drinking, and his eventual suicide, had shattering consequences.

My boy is still in counselling now

and it all stems from Brett's death.

It was a shock.

The children, they miss their father.

-Bye.

-Bye-bye.

It's a heartbreaking story of addiction and the catastrophic effects on a family.

Bob phones in to the office.

-Hello?

-Hi, Dave. Bob Barrett.

-Hi, Bob.

-Just to let you know I've seen Natalie, Natalie Townsend.

She has signed an agreement on her own behalf and on behalf of her two children.

Natalie couldn't tell them how much Brett's estate might be worth,

but as far as the hunt for his eldest son James is concerned, David Pacifico has some good news.

-It looks like the full story.

-They've found Brett's ex-wife, Trudi, the mother of James

and the final piece in the puzzle.

James will be due one third of the estate. I understand he's at university somewhere.

So I'll leave some paperwork with his mother with a view to her forwarding it on to him.

Trudi was divorced from Brett 20 years ago and remarried.

-Hello, Bob Barrett. I think you're expecting me.

-Yes.

-Excellent.

The Heir Hunters' biggest worry is that James may have been adopted by her new husband.

If he has been adopted, he will no longer be entitled.

-We weren't sure whether James had been adopted.

-There was talk of it, but we didn't get round to it.

-It's quite a long process.

-Quite.

-So James just decided to change his name by deed poll.

-Oh, he's done it by deed poll?

-Yeah.

Trudi and James hadn't seen Brett for some time before his death.

When we separated originally and then divorced,

he was only allowed supervised access.

He did that a couple of times and then it drifted apart.

I don't think he felt that comfortable with people there.

So, yeah, we kind of lost contact.

-Thanks very much. Bye-bye.

-Bye.

It's been an unusual case for the Heir Hunters.

It's been quite an interesting day.

We've identified three heirs and I've not seen any of them,

although I've spoken to the parent... to the parents of all three.

A bit unusual, that.

In the office, case manager David Pacifico is pleased, but still a little puzzled by the story.

This is a strange case. The fact that he died so many years ago

and they all knew that he died and dealt with matters then,

but, of course, what this matter... Why this matter has come to light further

is obviously some further assets, which obviously weren't known at the time when he died.

The team estimates the final value of Brett's estate to be around £5,000.

Although they don't know where the money has come from, it could be interest on savings

or a forgotten insurance policy maturing.

James, Brett's eldest son, is now 21 and studying at university.

His father's legacy will go towards his studies to be a pharmacist.

When I found out this money was here, I was so surprised. I had a phone call from my mum

and she said, "You'll never believe what's just happened. You've actually got some money coming."

I said, "Where's it coming from?" And she said, "It's from your dad."

Unlike Natalie's children, he didn't have a lot to do with his father.

When I last saw him I was about three years old and I was at my grandmother's house.

He came round with a colouring book full of dinosaurs

and I sat and did that and he read the paper.

That's my last memory of seeing him.

Having lost touch at such a young age, James is philosophical about his father's alcoholism

and his tragic death.

The story of my dad, I don't really feel as though it's affected how I feel about parenting.

I think that maybe, if anything, it's made me want to be a better parent towards my children.

My father was an alcoholic. He didn't have his priorities right, I think was the main problem.

Which I think comes with alcoholism. You end up losing sight of what's really important in life.

But he wasn't a stupid man.

He just lost his way a bit and couldn't find his way back to the path.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd