Dubai university wins fake will case, 2 academics to face investigation

Dubai university wins fake will case, 2 academics to face investigation

  DUBAI – The British University in Dubai (BUID) has won a court case against a British professor who presented a fake will claiming he is the beneficiary of a £3 million ($4.14 million) fortune left by a British naval officer who worked at the university. In 2012, BUID received a copy of the will of former naval officer Robert Whalley, who worked as a professor at the university for 10 years. In his will, Whalley left 90 percent of his fortune to the university. However, when Whalley died from cancer in 2018, his colleague, professor Kambiz Ebrahimi, produced a second will claiming that all of Whalley’s fortune was left to him. In court, Judge Davis-White QC ruled that the 2018 will is fake, and referred the case for further criminal investigation after hearing that two other academics made false statements on the signing of the second will. “Possible criminal actions that may have taken place in this case include perjury, conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice,” he said. The court heard that Dr. Antonios Pezouvanis and Dr. Panagiotis Athanasiou, of Loughborough University, had signed the second will. However, their signatures raised suspicion as these were affixed on the back on the document without any indication that the academics witnessed the signing of the will. “They have simply added their signatures to the document later, after Professor Whalley's death,” the judge said. “The most natural thing would be to have the word ‘witnessed’ and the relevant witness details placed immediately under the signature of the testator, rather than being freestanding and with no explanation on the reverse of the document,” he said. ICA/Expat Media

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