0:00:02 > 0:00:05Heir hunters are trained to track down the relatives of those
0:00:05 > 0:00:11- who died without leaving a will. - She dies, um, 16th April.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14Their work involves expert research.
0:00:14 > 0:00:16Nothing in this job gets the adrenaline going like making
0:00:16 > 0:00:18enquiries.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21And it's often a race against time.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24Because you're in a competitive process, there's a time constraint.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26But most important of all,
0:00:26 > 0:00:29their work is about handing over thousands of pounds to
0:00:29 > 0:00:33relatives who had no idea they were in line for a windfall.
0:00:33 > 0:00:35It's sort of come out of the blue, really.
0:00:35 > 0:00:41The whole thing was just so exciting and I didn't know then what
0:00:41 > 0:00:43I know now about my own family.
0:00:46 > 0:00:49So could the heir hunters be knocking on your door?
0:00:52 > 0:00:54Coming up...
0:00:54 > 0:00:57A valuable case that was to blow wide open the world of a man
0:00:57 > 0:00:59who gave nothing away.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02It is a bit of a pain that it has happened because what we thought
0:01:02 > 0:01:06was going to be a small job is now turning out to be a larger job.
0:01:06 > 0:01:08Oh, no, no!
0:01:08 > 0:01:11And how a police investigation brought shocking new twists
0:01:11 > 0:01:13to a forgotten case.
0:01:13 > 0:01:19In early 2006, a detective sergeant in Margate contacted me
0:01:19 > 0:01:22with regards to carrying out a financial investigation.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26Plus, could a fortune be heading your way?
0:01:26 > 0:01:29Find out how you could be entitled to inherit unclaimed estates
0:01:29 > 0:01:31held by the Treasury.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43It's late morning in the London office of Fraser & Fraser,
0:01:43 > 0:01:46the UK's largest heir hunting firm.
0:01:46 > 0:01:47PHONE RINGS
0:01:47 > 0:01:49Hello, Val.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52The team are busy looking at new cases that have just been
0:01:52 > 0:01:55- made public. - Got two children of the deceased.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59Today, the Duchy of Lancaster has released a list of estates,
0:01:59 > 0:02:02and one of them has caught the team's eye.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05'At the moment, we're doing a job called Charles Bruce.'
0:02:05 > 0:02:07It's a Duchy case. It came out today. He's worth about 20 grand.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17Charles Edward Bruce died aged 85 at his home in Salford.
0:02:18 > 0:02:20Although he lived alone,
0:02:20 > 0:02:26- he was a popular figure at his local social club.- Cheers.- Cheers.- Cheers.
0:02:26 > 0:02:32He's given many people in this club a memory and something to smile about.
0:02:32 > 0:02:33Absolutely.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38When we first came in the club, Charlie always...
0:02:38 > 0:02:44He always sat here, at the end of this seat. Never sat anywhere else.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47That's where my best friend, Charlie, always sat,
0:02:47 > 0:02:49every Saturday and Sunday night.
0:02:50 > 0:02:54Charlie was also fondly remembered for his musical talents,
0:02:54 > 0:02:58which kept everyone in the social club entertained for hours.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02He first started coming to the club with this chap here.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05- Cos he played the organ here. - So he looked out for Charlie.
0:03:05 > 0:03:07And Charlie then, knowing that John Joe,
0:03:07 > 0:03:10- would come in here to play the organ.- Followed him.
0:03:10 > 0:03:15Followed him in. Yes. Along with his harmonica.
0:03:15 > 0:03:17So in many respects, I think
0:03:17 > 0:03:20they could have been a bit of a double act.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24But even though Charlie was often the centre of attention
0:03:24 > 0:03:29down at the club, his friends knew very little about his private life.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32We went to the house many, many a time, but he
0:03:32 > 0:03:35would never let you in. You know, we had to wait outside for him.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38He closed the door and said, "I won't be a minute." And he never, ever...
0:03:38 > 0:03:40He was private, in that respect.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49Charles died without leaving a will and had no known relatives,
0:03:49 > 0:03:50so in the office,
0:03:50 > 0:03:55the search for relatives to his £20,000 estate is well and truly on.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00Research is being led by one of the firm's youngest case managers,
0:04:00 > 0:04:0223-year-old Mike Powell.
0:04:02 > 0:04:08- Send us anything for that geezer on the other side.- Yeah.- Mr Bruce.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12The team quickly establishes Charles was a bachelor when he died, so they
0:04:12 > 0:04:16extend their search to his parents in the hope of finding siblings.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19They discover that his parents were Alfred and Agnes,
0:04:19 > 0:04:22and it looks like Charles wasn't their only child.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25As well as Charles, they had a son, Alfred, who died in infancy,
0:04:25 > 0:04:27and a daughter, Dorothy.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30We've not actually found a marriage for Dorothy,
0:04:30 > 0:04:34so we're assuming that she died as a spinster in Manchester in 1962.
0:04:34 > 0:04:38Looks like he had two siblings who died without having any kids.
0:04:40 > 0:04:42So having ruled out brothers and sisters,
0:04:42 > 0:04:45the team must now look to the wider family, and this means
0:04:45 > 0:04:50trying to find aunts, uncles and first cousins who would be heirs.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53Starting with the paternal side of the family tree, they establish
0:04:53 > 0:04:57Charles's grandparents were Charles Bruce and Sarah Fearnehough.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59They also discovered that as well as Alfred,
0:04:59 > 0:05:03they had three other sons - Thomas, Charles and Josiah.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08Their children would be Charles's cousins and, if alive,
0:05:08 > 0:05:09heirs to his estate.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12But early signs aren't looking good.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21Picked the one with the best name to start with, Josiah.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23All we've got for him
0:05:23 > 0:05:29is a shipping record taken into New Zealand in 1920.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32And things aren't much better with Josiah's brothers.
0:05:32 > 0:05:33They haven't got middle names.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37Thomas Bruce and Charles Bruce, so they're pretty common names.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40'At the moment, we've picked up a death for Charles Bruce,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43'possibly in Ashton, and we're just looking at a marriage'
0:05:43 > 0:05:45in Salford for him possible,
0:05:45 > 0:05:50so I'm going to see whether that picks anything up, really.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00The estate of Charles Bruce was advertised by the Duchy
0:06:00 > 0:06:03of Lancaster, one of several public bodies the heir hunters look
0:06:03 > 0:06:08- to for work.- We get our cases from a variety of different sources.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11The public sources are, of course, the Treasury Solicitor,
0:06:11 > 0:06:13the QLTR, Queen's
0:06:13 > 0:06:16and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer department up in Scotland
0:06:16 > 0:06:18or the two duchies, the Duchy of Cornwall and the Duchy of Lancaster.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25When any of these organisations advertises a case, heir-hunting
0:06:25 > 0:06:29firms around the UK compete to be the first to find and sign up heirs.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33No-one actually got any search back on this at all.
0:06:33 > 0:06:37If the team are successful, they'll be paid a percentage of this
0:06:37 > 0:06:40estate, which will be agreed with any heirs they find.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43With a large team of researchers to pay and no
0:06:43 > 0:06:47guarantees of finding heirs before their rivals, it's risky work.
0:06:53 > 0:06:54And on the Bruce case,
0:06:54 > 0:06:59the team cannot find records of paternal uncles Thomas and Charles.
0:06:59 > 0:07:00Can't find anything.
0:07:00 > 0:07:02I'm looking for a war death but there doesn't seem to be one
0:07:02 > 0:07:05and there's no death,
0:07:05 > 0:07:08so I don't know what happens to him at this moment in time.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14The team continue plugging away but, despite their best efforts,
0:07:14 > 0:07:18- they're struggling to make progress. - 'It's just been frustrating, really.'
0:07:18 > 0:07:19We haven't managed to find anything.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22There's a couple of marriages we've looked at that turned out
0:07:22 > 0:07:23they haven't been right.
0:07:24 > 0:07:28Every minute counts when you're up against competitors.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31We're just proving everything wrong at the moment, which is
0:07:31 > 0:07:34all well and good, but we're not actually proving anything right!
0:07:34 > 0:07:36So...
0:07:36 > 0:07:39It's just a case of carrying on until we actually find something.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45But for today, time has run out and the team head home,
0:07:45 > 0:07:47hoping for a better day tomorrow.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56The following morning, the team reconvene and,
0:07:56 > 0:07:59whilst progress is still slow on the paternal side of the family,
0:07:59 > 0:08:02things are looking more positive on Charles's mother Agnes's
0:08:02 > 0:08:04side of the family.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07Initial research looked like there might only be a few
0:08:07 > 0:08:11beneficiaries on the Owens side of the family.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15In fact, it seems Agnes was from a very large family.
0:08:15 > 0:08:20When we looked at the census yesterday, there were 12 children.
0:08:20 > 0:08:22This is bad news.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26A large family means costly research,
0:08:26 > 0:08:28which raises the stakes for the team.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34Trying to think what other ones we've got now.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38Charles's mother, Agnes, was the first daughter of Robert Owens
0:08:38 > 0:08:42and Jane Ann Spencer and they went on to have another 11 children.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47Any children of Agnes's siblings will be Charles's cousins
0:08:47 > 0:08:49and heirs to the estate.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52But as the team look closer, they realise research might not
0:08:52 > 0:08:55be as extensive as they originally feared.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02Eight had actually died before the '11 census.
0:09:02 > 0:09:09We've since worked out that another two have died without issue.
0:09:09 > 0:09:16And only our deceased mother and uncle actually had issue,
0:09:16 > 0:09:19so we've only got the one stem that we're actually
0:09:19 > 0:09:22working at the moment, of John Henry Owens.
0:09:24 > 0:09:29This is good news for the team, who only have to find John Henry Owens.
0:09:29 > 0:09:30It's not too terrible.
0:09:30 > 0:09:35Hopefully, we'll be able to rectify it and sort it out all today.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37But the team are in a race against time because any
0:09:37 > 0:09:41of their rival heir-hunting firms could also be working this case.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47And that's where the company's travelling researchers come in.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50The company employ a UK-wide network of travelling researchers
0:09:50 > 0:09:55who play a vital role in helping them get ahead of the competition.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58They'll do anything from picking up certificates to doing
0:09:58 > 0:10:01door-to-door enquiries and, ultimately, signing up heirs.
0:10:02 > 0:10:07Retired detective Charlie Lemon is the company's man in the North West.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10So I've had a call from the office this morning,
0:10:10 > 0:10:13just to tell me about the new case that they've got.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18Charlie will be poised to visit any heirs the team in the office
0:10:18 > 0:10:19can find.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25But in London, there's been a development
0:10:25 > 0:10:28and it's not what the team were hoping to hear.
0:10:28 > 0:10:34Got the certificates back in today for the job of Charles Bruce
0:10:34 > 0:10:37and on the maternal side, we put in a spinster death
0:10:37 > 0:10:41for Mary Owens and, unfortunately, that's come back wrong.
0:10:41 > 0:10:42She's actually a married lady,
0:10:42 > 0:10:45so we're back to the drawing board with Mary.
0:10:45 > 0:10:47The team were hoping they'd only have to research one
0:10:47 > 0:10:49stem of the huge maternal family.
0:10:52 > 0:10:54Yeah. It is a bit of a pain that it has happened
0:10:54 > 0:10:57because what we thought was going to be a small job is now turning
0:10:57 > 0:10:59out to be a rather larger job.
0:10:59 > 0:11:01Now it's massive,
0:11:01 > 0:11:04and the bachelor who he said was a bachelor isn't a bachelor.
0:11:04 > 0:11:09- He was married.- With kids? - And the spinster death was wrong.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12The team now have three times more work to do on the maternal
0:11:12 > 0:11:15side of the case, and with no heirs yet found,
0:11:15 > 0:11:17there are no guarantees of being paid.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21We're now looking at quite a lot larger job. Um...
0:11:22 > 0:11:24That's all we've got at the moment.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34Sometimes new information can come to light on an estate
0:11:34 > 0:11:37that the heir hunters thought was done and dusted.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41In 2012, heir hunter Peter Birchwood received some shocking
0:11:41 > 0:11:44details about the estate of the man called Kenneth Offord,
0:11:44 > 0:11:50a case which he'd last looked at seven years earlier in 2005.
0:11:50 > 0:11:54'What I discovered after communicating with a solicitor'
0:11:54 > 0:12:01was that Kenneth Offord had been the victim of a cruel crime.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07The revelations meant that a case Peter and his team thought was
0:12:07 > 0:12:11closed would have to be reopened and reinvestigated.
0:12:17 > 0:12:22Kenneth Gordon Offord died aged 79 at home in Welling in Kent.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24He never married or had children
0:12:24 > 0:12:27but he was well known around the local area.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31Neighbour Mary Withan remembers him as a man of routine,
0:12:31 > 0:12:34passing her window every day.
0:12:34 > 0:12:41As soon as the sun was out, Ken would be in his shorts. Yes.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45You know, we knew summer was coming.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51He was quite a nice person, friendly, clean,
0:12:51 > 0:12:55but we never heard him ever speak about a wife or anything.
0:12:59 > 0:13:04Kenneth was a regular at the local cafe but in October 2003,
0:13:04 > 0:13:07Mary suddenly noticed she hadn't seen Kenneth for a while.
0:13:08 > 0:13:12It must have been about just over a week when we missed him
0:13:12 > 0:13:15because the owner said to me, "You live near him,
0:13:15 > 0:13:19"would you go round and find out what is wrong?"
0:13:19 > 0:13:24So I did and I went up and banged on his door,
0:13:24 > 0:13:27but there was no answer,
0:13:27 > 0:13:31so I knocked next door and they banged
0:13:31 > 0:13:37and went round the house to see the son and then we phoned the police
0:13:37 > 0:13:41and they broke in and he was on the floor.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49Kenneth hadn't left a will and no-one knew of any relatives,
0:13:49 > 0:13:52so his case was published on the Bona Vacantia list
0:13:52 > 0:13:55of unclaimed estates and picked up by Peter Birchwood.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58He runs probate genealogy firm, Celtic Research,
0:13:58 > 0:14:02with son Hector, and they have offices across the UK, headed up
0:14:02 > 0:14:04by case managers Saul Marks
0:14:04 > 0:14:06and father-and-son team Phil and Donovan.
0:14:07 > 0:14:12The deceased died 23rd October, 2003.
0:14:12 > 0:14:17The Treasury advertised it round about March of 2005
0:14:17 > 0:14:19and we started working on it.
0:14:19 > 0:14:25They had the value then which was around about £9,000
0:14:25 > 0:14:27and that was the beginning of it.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30Although £9,000 wasn't a huge estate,
0:14:30 > 0:14:33Peter decided it was a case worth working.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36The information we had about the deceased Kenneth Offord was
0:14:36 > 0:14:44that he'd been a draughtsman and that he died in Welling, Kent,
0:14:44 > 0:14:47and, apart from that, we didn't have any real
0:14:47 > 0:14:52information about his life and times.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55Peter set about looking for Kenneth's relatives.
0:14:55 > 0:14:57The first thing that we normally do is to check to see
0:14:57 > 0:15:03if our deceased person had married or if he'd had any children
0:15:03 > 0:15:09and in this particular instance, there were no children.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15In fact, Kenneth had died a bachelor, so next,
0:15:15 > 0:15:18Peter and the team had to find out if he had any siblings.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21He discovered that Kenneth's parents
0:15:21 > 0:15:23were Arthur Offord and Alice Amelia Barnett
0:15:23 > 0:15:27and they'd had two more children - Kenneth's brothers.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30But one had died in infancy and the other without having children,
0:15:30 > 0:15:35which meant Peter now needed to look at the wider family tree.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38We did eventually find that some of them had died
0:15:38 > 0:15:43without having married, others had married and had children.
0:15:43 > 0:15:47We followed down to find what happened to those children.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50Peter needed to look to Kenneth's grandparents to see
0:15:50 > 0:15:52if his mother or father had siblings.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54Any children from these aunts
0:15:54 > 0:15:58and uncles would be Kenneth's cousins and heirs to his estate.
0:15:58 > 0:16:00Kenneth's paternal grandparents
0:16:00 > 0:16:03were Mary Anne Prince and Arthur Offord.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06The couple lived in the East End of London where Arthur
0:16:06 > 0:16:09worked as a crane driver in the Royal London Docks.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15It was a hugely busy time for the area
0:16:15 > 0:16:17and Arthur's job was a prestigious one.
0:16:18 > 0:16:21Crane drivers are very important in the hierarchy of dockworkers
0:16:21 > 0:16:25because if you bear in mind, dock labour is done on piece rates,
0:16:25 > 0:16:29so the quicker you move a cargo, the more you get paid,
0:16:29 > 0:16:32but there's a bottleneck in the handling of cargo
0:16:32 > 0:16:35and that's the crane, because you have to lift a lot of cargo
0:16:35 > 0:16:37out of the ship, put it on the quayside.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41So if your crane driver is fast, you're going
0:16:41 > 0:16:43to move more cargo, you're going to get paid more,
0:16:43 > 0:16:46so a good crane driver is very much sought-after by the gangs.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52Because of the way the dock labour was organised,
0:16:52 > 0:16:54permanent jobs were highly prized
0:16:54 > 0:16:58and would have meant a good salary and excellent job security.
0:16:58 > 0:17:03The best cargoes to handle, for example, were motorcars going for
0:17:03 > 0:17:08export, but dockers and crane drivers had their own favourite cargoes.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10Things that they really hated were sacks of flour
0:17:10 > 0:17:13and sacks of sugar because they were actually quite difficult
0:17:13 > 0:17:17and hard to move and cargoes that they liked were frozen meat,
0:17:17 > 0:17:21for example, because it's easier to handle and cases of oranges
0:17:21 > 0:17:23because they're very easy to pack.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29Most dockworkers lived very close to the docks
0:17:29 > 0:17:31so the London Dock, for example,
0:17:31 > 0:17:32London dockers tended to live
0:17:32 > 0:17:35in the Wapping, Stepney, Bethnal Green area.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37And we're talking about areas
0:17:37 > 0:17:39that are very traditional working-class areas
0:17:39 > 0:17:42with narrow streets, back-to-back houses quite often.
0:17:44 > 0:17:50That proximity has major impact when it comes to the Second World War.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56It was because of the bombing by the Germans that
0:17:56 > 0:17:59many of the people who'd grown up in London's East End started
0:17:59 > 0:18:03moving out to the relative safety of places like Kent and Essex.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09You see this gradual drift of people away from the East End, firstly,
0:18:09 > 0:18:12because of the bombing and then much later because they are looking
0:18:12 > 0:18:15for jobs, so they're actually moving away from the East End.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23Like many dockworkers, the Offords left the East End of London
0:18:23 > 0:18:26during the war and settled in Kent and Essex.
0:18:26 > 0:18:27It was in this region
0:18:27 > 0:18:31that the team began finding heirs to Kenneth's estate.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34We found that Kenneth Offord was survived
0:18:34 > 0:18:36by a number of first cousins.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39They'd be children of his aunts
0:18:39 > 0:18:43and uncles or first cousins once removed, which would
0:18:43 > 0:18:48be grandchildren and from that information we started
0:18:48 > 0:18:52contacting people and getting in a position to prove their claim.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56It wasn't long before he was satisfied
0:18:56 > 0:19:01he had located all the heirs to Kenneth's £9,000 estate
0:19:01 > 0:19:03and he proceeded with the paperwork.
0:19:04 > 0:19:08Once we had found the heirs, put forward the claim
0:19:08 > 0:19:13and the Treasury had released the assets, then the solicitor
0:19:13 > 0:19:20distributed the assets to the heirs and we put away the case.
0:19:22 > 0:19:27As far as Peter and the team were concerned, it was case closed.
0:19:27 > 0:19:29Or was it?
0:19:33 > 0:19:36All was quiet for a number of years
0:19:36 > 0:19:42until, in 2012, I got a letter from the solicitor who'd done
0:19:42 > 0:19:45administration of the estate to say that he had been
0:19:45 > 0:19:51contacted about information that there were other assets.
0:19:54 > 0:19:59The assets in question amounted to a staggering £109,000,
0:19:59 > 0:20:03more than 12 times the original value of the estate.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06But where had the money come from and why wasn't it
0:20:06 > 0:20:08part of the original estate?
0:20:08 > 0:20:09Well, when the truth emerged,
0:20:09 > 0:20:12it put a shocking new slant on the whole case.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18Bob Wood is a financial investigator based with Kent
0:20:18 > 0:20:23and Essex police and in 2006, three years after Kenneth's death,
0:20:23 > 0:20:27he had begun investigating a gang of rogue builders.
0:20:27 > 0:20:32In early 2006, a detective sergeant in Margate contacted me
0:20:32 > 0:20:34with regards to carrying out a financial
0:20:34 > 0:20:37investigation into William Smith and a number of others that
0:20:37 > 0:20:42had been arrested down there as rogue builders.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45Builder William Smith, working with others including accomplice
0:20:45 > 0:20:50Timothy Killick, had been targeting elderly and vulnerable victims
0:20:50 > 0:20:54and conning them into paying extortionate sums of money
0:20:54 > 0:20:57for work that was often unnecessary.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00We were looking at them for a conspiracy to defraud,
0:21:00 > 0:21:01money-laundering.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04In effect, they generally cold-called the elderly
0:21:04 > 0:21:06and the vulnerable.
0:21:09 > 0:21:11But the gang of cowboy builders had been caught
0:21:11 > 0:21:16and Bob's team had begun unravelling their terrible web of crime.
0:21:16 > 0:21:20They had seven victims, elderly and vulnerable victims, down there.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24We needed to carry out an investigation, financially,
0:21:24 > 0:21:28to establish whether we've got the proceedings for confiscation
0:21:28 > 0:21:33and also obviously to seek some compensation for the victims.
0:21:34 > 0:21:39We found that all those accounts had moved money through it from victims.
0:21:39 > 0:21:44As a result of identifying the transactions within the accounts,
0:21:44 > 0:21:47we identified a possible 124 victims.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55Sadly, Kenneth Offord was one of the victims and in his case,
0:21:55 > 0:21:59they even persuaded him to sign over the deeds to his house.
0:21:59 > 0:22:01They would cold-call the victim,
0:22:01 > 0:22:05usually saying that they were working in the area and had noticed
0:22:05 > 0:22:06a tile on the roof loose -
0:22:06 > 0:22:09did they want them to look at them at that time?
0:22:09 > 0:22:15Once on the roof, things would become more complex, more expensive,
0:22:15 > 0:22:18and often they would be pressurised into having work done,
0:22:18 > 0:22:22often the whole roof being replaced, when it wasn't necessary.
0:22:28 > 0:22:30Fortunately, the gang got their comeuppance
0:22:30 > 0:22:33and was jailed for their crime in 2008.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36William Smith initially got sentenced to eight years, I think
0:22:36 > 0:22:38it was eight years, four months.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40Killick got four and half years inside.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46William Smith had that reduced to seven years, six months,
0:22:46 > 0:22:49and he, in fact, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56Police now began the process of returning the money that had
0:22:56 > 0:23:00been stolen and when they searched for relatives of Kenneth Offord,
0:23:00 > 0:23:03they uncovered information that had a dramatic effect on the work
0:23:03 > 0:23:05that Peter Birchwood had done.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09It was a case that we had to restart from scratch,
0:23:09 > 0:23:12but it was obviously worthwhile.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15It was a case that really could mean an awful lot
0:23:15 > 0:23:17to the members of the family.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28Heir hunters trace thousands of rightful beneficiaries every year,
0:23:28 > 0:23:29but not all cases can be cracked.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35There are thousands of estates on the Treasury's Bona Vacantia list
0:23:35 > 0:23:38that have eluded the heir hunters and remain unsolved.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43When the Bona Vacantia division passes money to the Treasury,
0:23:43 > 0:23:45it puts the case on its unclaimed list
0:23:45 > 0:23:47and it stays on there for 12 years to be claimed.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50If someone makes a valid claim within that period,
0:23:50 > 0:23:51then the money's paid back.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55Today we're focusing on two cases that are yet to be
0:23:55 > 0:23:57solved by the heir hunters.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00Could you be the beneficiary they're looking for?
0:24:00 > 0:24:05Could you be about to inherit some money from a long-lost relative?
0:24:05 > 0:24:07First is the case of Winifred Joan Barr
0:24:07 > 0:24:12who died on 15th September 1987 in Winchester, Hampshire.
0:24:14 > 0:24:19Winifred married Ernest Harold Barr in Greenford, Middlesex, in 1941.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21Her maiden name was Charlesworth.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27Winifred is believed to have died a widow without any children.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31Records reveal she was born in Wigston, Lancashire, in 1912
0:24:31 > 0:24:34to John Charlesworth and Hannah Howe.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38It's believed Winifred moved to Australia and worked as a nurse
0:24:38 > 0:24:42and family help before returning to the UK in 1931.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47Information dated from 1931 suggests the deceased had a brother
0:24:47 > 0:24:51living in Mansfield and a brother living in Brighton
0:24:51 > 0:24:53and a sister living in Essex.
0:24:53 > 0:24:55Despite all this information, there's been
0:24:55 > 0:24:58no success in tracing beneficiaries to her estate.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02Do you know anything which could shed some light on her family?
0:25:03 > 0:25:06Next, did you know Dorothy Rita Adie?
0:25:06 > 0:25:10She died on 10th February 2000 in Chichester, West Sussex.
0:25:13 > 0:25:19Dorothy was born on 13th March 1924 and her maiden name was Fox.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22Information we have suggests Dorothy might have been
0:25:22 > 0:25:24born in the London Borough of Hounslow.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32Both Winifred and Dorothy's estates remain unclaimed
0:25:32 > 0:25:36and if no-one comes forward, their money will go to the Government.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39The money raised by the Bona Vacantia division is passed
0:25:39 > 0:25:43annually to the Treasury and it goes into the Consolidated Fund,
0:25:43 > 0:25:45therefore to benefit the country as a whole.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48Do you have any clues that could help solve
0:25:48 > 0:25:52the cases of Winifred Joan Barr or Dorothy Rita Adie?
0:25:52 > 0:25:54Perhaps you could be the next of kin.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58If so, you could have thousands of pounds coming your way.
0:26:02 > 0:26:04At the offices of Fraser & Fraser,
0:26:04 > 0:26:08the team are working on the £20,000 case of Charles Bruce,
0:26:08 > 0:26:13a retired forklift truck driver who died aged 85 at home in Salford.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18With case manager Mike Powell at the helm,
0:26:18 > 0:26:20the team in the office are trying to crack the maternal
0:26:20 > 0:26:23side of the family which needs a lot more research than
0:26:23 > 0:26:25they'd originally thought.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28The one stem we thought we had kind of ballooned out
0:26:28 > 0:26:32and we now have about five stems.
0:26:34 > 0:26:40The paternal side of the family has also thrown up some surprises.
0:26:40 > 0:26:44Charles's father Alfred had three brothers, one of them,
0:26:44 > 0:26:46Josiah, is listed on the shipping records,
0:26:46 > 0:26:50which show that in 1920, aged just 19,
0:26:50 > 0:26:53he made the epic 30-day voyage to New Zealand.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57It would seem he was one of thousands to emigrate at that time.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00A young man like Josiah Bruce would have likely been
0:27:00 > 0:27:03motivated to travel to New Zealand for several reasons.
0:27:03 > 0:27:05The first of which was that, in 1920,
0:27:05 > 0:27:10just two years after the Great War, Salford, the Manchester area,
0:27:10 > 0:27:14was blighted by high unemployment levels as well as a great deal of poverty.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17And so it is really not surprising that he would have tried to
0:27:17 > 0:27:20look further afield to improve his fortunes in that period.
0:27:23 > 0:27:24Since the 19th century,
0:27:24 > 0:27:29New Zealand had opened its doors to skilled labourers from the UK
0:27:29 > 0:27:32but after the Great War in 1920 work had dried up.
0:27:38 > 0:27:42This is probably the worst time that Josiah Bruce could have
0:27:42 > 0:27:44emigrated to New Zealand.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47He would have been promised work and housing
0:27:47 > 0:27:50and so on and so forth through the propaganda of the period
0:27:50 > 0:27:56but unfortunately when he arrived in 1921 the economy nosedived in New Zealand.
0:27:57 > 0:28:02If we try to imagine Josiah Bruce and what made him take this decision,
0:28:02 > 0:28:06then the sort of character we come across is someone
0:28:06 > 0:28:11who was of pioneering spirit, with a great sense of adventure,
0:28:11 > 0:28:16a sense of wanderlust to explore the world beyond Salford, Manchester.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22Josiah's move to New Zealand means the team will need to contact
0:28:22 > 0:28:25their agent over there to trace any heirs.
0:28:25 > 0:28:28Fortunately, the rest of the family stayed closer to home.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32The team have established that another of the brothers,
0:28:32 > 0:28:35Thomas, died without having children.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38The final brother, Charles, did go on to have a family.
0:28:40 > 0:28:41Uncle Charles has married
0:28:41 > 0:28:46and we managed to trace two great-grandchildren of the marriage.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50This would be our deceased first cousins twice removed.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53Once they make contact with the beneficiaries,
0:28:53 > 0:28:56the heir hunters will agree a percentage of the estate
0:28:56 > 0:28:59and assist them to make a successful claim to the duchy.
0:28:59 > 0:29:02We've been to see a couple of people already who we believe
0:29:02 > 0:29:06are beneficiaries on that line and they have given us more information.
0:29:06 > 0:29:11Hopefully today we will find more and sign more people up.
0:29:11 > 0:29:15The team are also making good progress on the maternal side.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18The team have discovered that two of Agnes' brothers,
0:29:18 > 0:29:21John and Charles, married and had children.
0:29:21 > 0:29:22Marian is John's daughter
0:29:22 > 0:29:26and researching her stem has thrown up a few surprises.
0:29:30 > 0:29:34Charles' first cousin Marian had an illegitimate daughter
0:29:34 > 0:29:36who was brought up by her sister
0:29:36 > 0:29:40and she went on to have three more children with a Chinese sailor.
0:29:42 > 0:29:47Marian married sailor Gam Fok in August 1948 in Liverpool
0:29:47 > 0:29:50but their marriage was short-lived.
0:29:50 > 0:29:52Sadly, after Marian's husband returned to sea,
0:29:52 > 0:29:57the enormous task of looking after six children became too much
0:29:57 > 0:30:01and Marian took her own life. It is a tragic twist to the story.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04The team have been able to chase Marian's children,
0:30:04 > 0:30:07including the daughter who was born illegitimately.
0:30:07 > 0:30:10We've got an address for her and Charlie is going to go and see her.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13With travelling researcher Charlie out on the road
0:30:13 > 0:30:16visiting potential heirs, the team are confident they have now
0:30:16 > 0:30:21cracked the case and found a total of 25 heirs to this £20,000 estate.
0:30:23 > 0:30:27Case manager Mike Powell is pleased with the result.
0:30:27 > 0:30:28The case went pretty well.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31We've managed to locate all the beneficiaries who are in the UK.
0:30:31 > 0:30:36There's about 25. It was a bit more than we initially expected.
0:30:36 > 0:30:40We are still searching for people in New Zealand, which is going to
0:30:40 > 0:30:44take a bit longer but everything else seems to be pretty much completed.
0:30:47 > 0:30:49But what will the response of the heir be?
0:30:52 > 0:30:55One of those heirs found by the company is Tracey.
0:30:56 > 0:30:59She is a granddaughter of Marian, who was Charles' first cousin.
0:30:59 > 0:31:03But she has never known the full extent of her family tree.
0:31:05 > 0:31:07I have always wondered how big the family is.
0:31:07 > 0:31:12The main portion of the family I know is the aunts and the cousins.
0:31:12 > 0:31:16Past that I have no idea other than I have Marian Owens
0:31:16 > 0:31:21and his name was Gam Fok, my mother's father.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24But I don't know a lot about his side of the family,
0:31:24 > 0:31:26only from the mum's side.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29Tracey hopes that becoming an heir,
0:31:29 > 0:31:33she will be able to reconnect with new members of her family.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36It is always sad when somebody dies, obviously,
0:31:36 > 0:31:39but as I never knew Charles personally it doesn't affect me
0:31:39 > 0:31:44in an emotional way but it is still never nice to know somebody has died.
0:31:44 > 0:31:48But if I do manage to inherit something from Charles,
0:31:48 > 0:31:53then hopefully he will be proud it went to his family members.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58And that the social club where Charles spent so many hours,
0:31:58 > 0:32:01his memory will live on for a very long time.
0:32:02 > 0:32:06If all the world was made of Charlie Bruces,
0:32:06 > 0:32:09it would be the most wonderful place to live in.
0:32:18 > 0:32:23In 2005, Peter Birchwood from Celtic Research had traced heirs
0:32:23 > 0:32:26to the £9,000 estate of Kenneth Offord
0:32:26 > 0:32:28and believed the case was closed.
0:32:30 > 0:32:32But, unbeknown to him,
0:32:32 > 0:32:35Kent and Essex Police had discovered that, before he died,
0:32:35 > 0:32:38Kenneth had been the victim of a fraud and that police now
0:32:38 > 0:32:43had an additional £109,000 to give back to his relatives.
0:32:44 > 0:32:48Investigating officer Bob Wood began the search for Kenneth's relatives,
0:32:48 > 0:32:51completely unaware that, seven years earlier,
0:32:51 > 0:32:55Peter Birchwood had done exactly the same thing.
0:32:55 > 0:33:00We did identify a sister-in-law and she couldn't help us
0:33:00 > 0:33:04with any information about the family.
0:33:04 > 0:33:08So really at that particular point we had came up against a brick wall
0:33:08 > 0:33:10when it came to family.
0:33:13 > 0:33:17But using a genealogy website, Bob was able to make a breakthrough.
0:33:17 > 0:33:23I decided to put Kenneth Offord's name into an ancestry database
0:33:23 > 0:33:30and a Kenneth Offord came up in a family tree of a young lady in Essex.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34I believe her name was Francis, as the surname.
0:33:35 > 0:33:39I thought that she was a young person so I started to
0:33:39 > 0:33:44look for someone that is older called Francis in the village area
0:33:44 > 0:33:49and found Clifford Francis and then found that he was on the same tree.
0:33:51 > 0:33:55So I felt it a safe bet that he was a relative of Mr Offord.
0:33:57 > 0:33:59Bob's hunch paid off.
0:33:59 > 0:34:01Clifford was a first cousin of Kenneth
0:34:01 > 0:34:04but hadn't seen him for over 60 years.
0:34:05 > 0:34:09It was difficult to keep track of all the members of family
0:34:09 > 0:34:14because there were grandparents dying, there were family members
0:34:14 > 0:34:18like my mother's brothers and sisters, they died.
0:34:18 > 0:34:21Children who were my cousins grew up, got married,
0:34:21 > 0:34:24moved away and we just lost touch.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28But the discovery of Clifford was a complete bolt out of the blue
0:34:28 > 0:34:30for heir hunter Peter Birchwood.
0:34:30 > 0:34:34When he searched for Kenneth's relatives seven years earlier,
0:34:34 > 0:34:36he found no record of Clifford.
0:34:38 > 0:34:40The news meant he would have to reopen the case.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45Clifford, himself an amateur genealogist, has started
0:34:45 > 0:34:49his own research into his family tree and had posted it online,
0:34:49 > 0:34:53which is how Bob found him in the first place.
0:34:53 > 0:34:55But when Peter first researched the Offord family,
0:34:55 > 0:34:57he had to do it the old-fashioned way.
0:34:59 > 0:35:06In 2005, you had to go through the books of Births, Marriages And Deaths.
0:35:06 > 0:35:08You had to go page by page.
0:35:08 > 0:35:14Nowadays, of course, we've got the databases that are on the internet
0:35:14 > 0:35:18that we can do the research in a slightly easier fashion.
0:35:18 > 0:35:20For reasons which would soon become clear,
0:35:20 > 0:35:25Peter found no trace of Clifford when searching through the records.
0:35:25 > 0:35:31Clifford had been the child of his mother's first marriage
0:35:31 > 0:35:38but his mother then remarried and Mr Webb took his stepfather's name
0:35:38 > 0:35:46but not by adoption or by change of name. Therefore we didn't find him.
0:35:46 > 0:35:49So although born a Webb, Clifford now used the surname Francis
0:35:49 > 0:35:53but had not officially changed it so he could not be traced
0:35:53 > 0:35:57using the records, which explained why the heir hunters hadn't found him.
0:35:57 > 0:35:59Clifford's mother was Ethel Offord.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02The sister of Kenneth's father Arthur.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05In the 1940s, Ethel had an illustrious career
0:36:05 > 0:36:08working for one of British fashion's best-known names.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11My mother, when she was 15,
0:36:11 > 0:36:16she worked for Austin Reed as a shirt machinist.
0:36:16 > 0:36:20She did progress through her life as a shirt machinist
0:36:20 > 0:36:24till she became a sample hand
0:36:24 > 0:36:28and she used to make the shirt up from scratch, from cutting it out,
0:36:28 > 0:36:32stitching it together in a fairly quick time, within a few hours.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38Clifford's mum, Ethel, was a star machinist in the company
0:36:38 > 0:36:42and rose through the ranks to become a sample hand machinist, which meant
0:36:42 > 0:36:47that she would design shirts and present new designs to purchasers.
0:36:47 > 0:36:50A rare responsibility in those days.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57The first shop was in Fenchurch Street in the City of London
0:36:57 > 0:36:59and it was opened in 1900.
0:36:59 > 0:37:00The first day's takings
0:37:00 > 0:37:03were three pounds five shillings and seven pence.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07The market that he was aiming at was the very large
0:37:07 > 0:37:12numbers of young men going into the city on the trains
0:37:12 > 0:37:17to work in offices and they needed a constant supply of clean shirts
0:37:17 > 0:37:22and collars to wear because conditions were very grimy then.
0:37:22 > 0:37:29And it was nothing for a shop to sell 300 dozen collars a week.
0:37:29 > 0:37:30That's 3,600 collars a week.
0:37:30 > 0:37:35That continued right up to after the Second World War.
0:37:37 > 0:37:41They did manufacture shirts under their own brand name.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44They had a particular brand called Summit.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48That actually became unpopular because they said Summit was
0:37:48 > 0:37:50a better name and Summit shirts were best...
0:37:50 > 0:37:53Partly because it sounded rather German.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01During the First and Second World Wars, Austin Reed played
0:38:01 > 0:38:05a valuable role in providing uniforms for the soldiers.
0:38:05 > 0:38:07But it was also asked to design
0:38:07 > 0:38:11and create a very special outfit for a very important man.
0:38:13 > 0:38:17They made Winston Churchill's all-in-one suit that he could
0:38:17 > 0:38:20pop on in the dark in ten seconds or something
0:38:20 > 0:38:22and they traded on that to quite an extent.
0:38:22 > 0:38:26Churchill needed suits he could change into quickly in case
0:38:26 > 0:38:29he was called to the Cabinet War Room in the middle of the night.
0:38:29 > 0:38:32And he had several versions of these suits made,
0:38:32 > 0:38:34including a silk and a velvet one.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39They did also make individual garments to order.
0:38:39 > 0:38:41Somebody could come in and place an order for a particular
0:38:41 > 0:38:47kind of garment and they would make it from scratch at their Dalston
0:38:47 > 0:38:49factory which is probably where Ethel worked.
0:38:51 > 0:38:54The main business for machinists who worked
0:38:54 > 0:38:58directly for the company was in alterations for customers.
0:38:58 > 0:39:01She would have worked long, hard days sewing and sewing
0:39:01 > 0:39:04and making alterations.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07She would have been unlikely to have been in many of the shops
0:39:07 > 0:39:10unless possibly during the Second World War,
0:39:10 > 0:39:15of course the men were off fighting for their country.
0:39:21 > 0:39:24Having established that Ethel had a son, Clifford,
0:39:24 > 0:39:26who he hadn't originally found,
0:39:26 > 0:39:29Peter decided it was best to relook at the whole case.
0:39:29 > 0:39:34I went through the whole of the investigation process
0:39:34 > 0:39:38to go through family trees on both sides of the family
0:39:38 > 0:39:43and we now know that we have got all of the family members checked out,
0:39:43 > 0:39:45we know where everybody is.
0:39:45 > 0:39:48Now that Peter knows there are 17 heirs,
0:39:48 > 0:39:52the additional £109,000 can be distributed among them.
0:39:52 > 0:39:56For Peter, it has ultimately been a rewarding case.
0:39:57 > 0:40:02The Offord case is obviously fascinating now.
0:40:02 > 0:40:07The back story of it with the swindlers and the stolen house
0:40:07 > 0:40:12and the police riding along on their motorbikes to arrest
0:40:12 > 0:40:16the villains, it is all fascinating,
0:40:16 > 0:40:21it is great story and it brings the family into the picture
0:40:21 > 0:40:25because now we can tell them what happened and tell them
0:40:25 > 0:40:33how unfortunate Kenneth Offord was to lose his house like that
0:40:33 > 0:40:37but we can tell them, look, at least it's being repaired in the way
0:40:37 > 0:40:43that his family can benefit from what the police have done.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52For Clifford, the experience of becoming an heir has made him
0:40:52 > 0:40:55reflect on why he lost touch with Kenneth's branch of the family.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01My grandmother, which was also his grandmother and grandfather,
0:41:01 > 0:41:08they had about nine children and they all lived
0:41:08 > 0:41:12and were born in the East End of London
0:41:12 > 0:41:16and when the Second World War came along, during the Blitz,
0:41:16 > 0:41:20their homes were destroyed by bombing and they moved out.
0:41:20 > 0:41:27And Ken's parents went to Kent, others, my mother and father,
0:41:27 > 0:41:29they came to Essex.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39Clifford has begun the process of reuniting with his family
0:41:39 > 0:41:41and he and his wife have revisited the Royal Docks
0:41:41 > 0:41:44where his grandfather was once a crane driver.
0:41:46 > 0:41:48It has changed an awful lot.
0:41:48 > 0:41:49I can remember
0:41:49 > 0:41:54when I was about 12 years old the way into the docks
0:41:54 > 0:41:57was through a barrier at each end of the docks
0:41:57 > 0:42:01and when you went down into the docks there were all
0:42:01 > 0:42:07the ships docked each side with the cranes off-loading.
0:42:07 > 0:42:11But it has changed beyond what it used to be back in...
0:42:11 > 0:42:16Well, I'm going back to 19... 1955.
0:42:17 > 0:42:21There is still evidence here of what it was like.
0:42:21 > 0:42:25It was all basically wharfs and docks.
0:42:28 > 0:42:32In the future, he also hopes to meet up with other family members.
0:42:32 > 0:42:37It is all part of the legacy left behind by his long lost cousin, Kenneth Offord.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43I was upset to hear of his death.
0:42:43 > 0:42:48And the fact that the money that may or may not be coming to me,
0:42:48 > 0:42:53and I don't know how much that will be, that was secondary really
0:42:53 > 0:42:57to the fact that it started the ball rolling on me
0:42:57 > 0:43:01rediscovering cousins who I hadn't known for many years.
0:43:01 > 0:43:05And that is more precious to me
0:43:05 > 0:43:08than any money I'm ever likely to receive.