Will fraud: Spinster led a simple life

Born in Lancashire, her family moved to various seaside towns before settling in Westcliff in the 1950s.

The daughter of Fred, a dentist, she inherited his surprising wealth, accumulated through wise investment. Although she did not really need to work, she trained as a chiropodist.

Miss Kay was a keen and accomplished pianist.

William Thompson, of Priory Crescent, Southend, met her through concert party work.

In her last years as well as having severely ulcerated legs, she also developed a Dowager's hump which Mr Thompson put down to her piano playing.

Mr Thompson said no sign of her wealth was reflected in her home.

He said: "It was a very modest apartment, very modest indeed."

He also noted she had very few close friends.

Tilly Green, 86, one of Miss Kay's neighbours in Dawlish Drive, Leigh, described her as placid and polite, and was obviously well educated.

Edith Griffiths, 91, of Fleetwood Avenue, Westcliff, met Miss Kay through the Goodwill Club, where Miss Kay played the piano at social evenings.

She left £1,000 to Mrs Griffiths in her will.

Although she never married, Miss Kay spent her final years with Patrick Wedd whom she met while on holiday.

The couple enjoyed many foreign holidays, and photographs of the two were displayed around the living room fireplace of the bungalow they shared in Dawlish Drive.

Mr Wedd had a flat in Folkestone and the pair spent summers there.

Mr Wedd was fiercely protective of Miss Kay which, added to her natural reserve, led her to keep most people at arm's length.

Sylvia Green, another Dawlish Drive neighbour, said: "Pat made you feel so uncomfortable. He was so protective of Annie."

She knew Mr Wedd from her days behind the bar of the Elms pub in Leigh where he would enjoy a daily lunchtime drink.

One day, Patrick asked her to help as Miss Kay had fallen over. From then on Mrs Green became a regular visitor, and performed housework and shopping tasks. Although she did not want to be paid, Miss Kay insisted on giving her £52 a week.

Mr Wedd's habit of checking and pocketing the change from the shopping led Mrs Green to give up the job after a few weeks.

She said: "I did not like the feeling of not being trusted. I told Annie how I felt, and she said 'Well, bloody well tell him.'

"I can understand why he was like that now. I could not believe the sort of money she had. I was dumbstruck."

Annie Kay's home was dirty, unhygienic and infested with ants and flies, the court was told.

In a statement read to the jury, Jane Burgess a community care nurse who visited Miss Kay at Dawlish Drive to tend to her ulcerated legs said the home was "not the sort of place you would want to spend much time in."

She added: "The bedroom was dirty, unhygienic and smelt. There were ants' nests and flies."

She described Miss Kay herself as "non-compliant and stubborn" and a woman who "did not like being out of her routine".

Bygone years - Annie Kay as a young woman

Plot was 'just like TV crime drama'

The plot to swindle rich spinster Annie Kay's beneficiaries of her £1.8 million estate was straight out of a Ruth Rendell mystery, a top police officer said today.

Det Supt David Bright, who led the fraud investigation, said: "It has been an amazing case.

"I almost felt it should have been being investigated by Wexford or Morse.

"I have never dealt with an incident like this in my 33 years service.

"It had so many unusual features - how often do you get a case where so many professional people are witnesses?

"It's not often you see barristers and solicitors in the witness box giving evidence."

Supt Bright describes the Spillmans' plot as "ingenious".

He added: "They stumbled upon an opportunity to make money which, if successful, equalled a lottery win.

"They would have been set up for life."

Police became involved when solicitors alerted beneficiaries who in turn employed a private investigator.

Supt Bright said: "I don't believe in coincidences. A will had been changed and within three weeks the maker of that will had passed away.

"Yes, she was elderly and not very well, but we were still suspicious that all was not as it seemed."

Information was originally passed to the Fraud Squad. An incident room was also set up with a small team of seven officers working diligently on the case.

On July 17, 1998, a decision was made to exhume the bodies of both Annie Kay and her companion Patrick Wedd from Sutton Road cemetery, Southend.

David and Annette Spillman, and Annette Russill, were arrested later that day.

Supt Bright said: "The Spillmans are streetwise and showed cunning.

"They came upon a situation and I suspect they could not believe their good fortune - two vulnerable elderly people who jointly were rich beyond the wildest dreams of most people.

"The plan was a very simple yet effective sting to get their hands on the money as quickly as possible.

"The added bonus was that the deceased had no elderly family to ask awkward questions.

"Thankfully a team of very tenacious police officers got to the bottom of the fraud.

"Their determination and the result is a credit to them."

Det Supt David Bright, who led the inquiry

Solicitor who raised the alarm

The man who first smelt a rat in the dealings of Annie Kay's will is her solicitor Peter Boardman.

He had dealt with the spinster's affairs for ten years when he was told in 1997 his services were no longer needed.

Mr Boardman, of Leigh-based practice Cooper and Lingard, was about to write a new will for Miss Kay when he was told she had switched to a new firm.

Two months later she was dead and Mr Boardman contacted Scope, the charity due to benefit from £1 million, half of the wealthy woman's fortune.

They had not heard any news of the cash, but decided to investigate.

Mr Boardman visited Annie Kay at the Spillmans home in January 1997 following the death of her companion Patrick Wedd.

She had inherited his estate, worth £180,000, and he advised her to make a new will to include this sum.

Mr Boardman said: "She told me she wanted to leave half the money to the Children's Society, which was Mr Wedd's favourite charity, and half to a blind group that met in Clements Church in Leigh.

"I went away to draw up the new will which she never signed."

This was the last time Mr Boardman saw Miss Kay. His telephone calls were fielded by the Spillmans and he was then told she had moved her business to Southend firm Twitchen, Musters and Kelly, as the pensioner had been unhappy with his service.

He said: "I was suspicious of the behaviour of Mrs Spillman during our meeting. She kept coming into the room where I was talking to Miss Kay, and then she sat down uninvited at the table."

When Mr Boardman heard that Miss Kay had died and left her cash to "my good friends Annette and David Spillman", he felt uneasy.

He said: "Miss Kay was living at the Spillmans purely as a business arrangement. When I visited her she asked my opinion of the Westcliff Hotel, saying she was thinking of moving in there. She was not over happy at Guildford Road."

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.