WEXFORD BUSINESSMAN BEGINS EVIDENCE IN CASE INVOLVING FORGED WILL
A County Wexford businessman who has admitted forging the will of a bachelor farmer has begun evidence against his brother and a friend who deny forging the same will.
The case opened before Judge Patricia Ryan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday.
51 year-old William OLeary of Ramsgrange County Wexford and 61 year-old Noel Hayes, a vegetable wholesaler from New Ross, have pleaded not guilty to forging the will of Matthew Hayes on a date between December 1998 and January 1999.
At yesterday’s opening of the trial, Mr O’Leary’s brother Charles told Philip Sheehan BL prosecuting that he had previously pleaded guilty for taking part in the alleged forgery.
He recieved an eighteen month suspended sentence and was ordered to pay 30,000 euro into an account pending for the next of kin of Matthew Hayes.
Noel Hayes had taken ownership of just under 592,000 euro worth of assets including 162 acres from Matthew Hayes after being named in a will witnessed by Charles and William O’Leary.
Charles O’Leary testified that the will, which was shown to the jury, was not signed until a week after Matthew Hayes had died.
The trial continues.
