A CALLOUS fraudster has been branded a ‘spiteful liar’ after trying to con her dead partner’s family out of his inheritance.
Kerry Burns, 35, was convicted of trying to pass off a fraudulent will she claimed contained the wishes of her late-partner William Hendry, 64, which excluded his children and grandchildren from receiving anything.
But a court found the document, which she had sent to his children, Scott and Carol Hendry, via Whatsapp, contained fake signatures purporting to be of Mr Hendry, his lawyer and his GP.
Mr Hendry’s daughter, Carol, 48, told of the family’s “two years of hell” at the hands of “cruel and manipulative” Burns, following his death on August 4, 2022.
Carol says not only did greedy Burns pocket her dad’s £5,000 life insurance money, she also excluded his family from the funeral and headstone and cleared out his home leaving them with nothing sentimental to remember him by.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Carol said: “She is a manipulative liar. She has put us through two years of hell. She gave my dad a catholic funeral even though he wasn’t catholic.
“In the eulogy there was no mention of him being a dad or a granddad, only ‘partner of Kerry’. It was hard to take in.
“She cleared out his house and his bank accounts, took all his jewelry, and left nothing for his children or grandsons to have as keepsake.
“Then in a final kick in the teeth she paid for a headstone with his money and left us out of that too.
“The headstone has her name on it, but doesn’t even mention that he was our dad. She’s so spiteful.”
Kilmarnock Sheriff Court heard that Burns, from Johnstone, had been in a relationship for 10 years with the late-Mr Hendry, who was 29-years her senior.
Carol says she always had a difficult relationship with Burns, who was 23 when she first got together with the then-54-year-old Mr Hendry.
She said: “I never liked her. If I’m honest I disapproved of the age gap, but it wasn’t just that. I found her manipulative from the beginning so I just stayed away from her.”
Carol says neither she, her brother Scott, 43, or Mr Hendry’s grandchildren can bear to visit his grave without getting upset.
She said: “It’s like she’s wiped us from his life. To go there and put flowers down and her name is on that headstone is upsetting.
“The first time we placed flowers and ornaments there they all ended up being smashed up and destroyed.
“Obviously I don’t know who done it, but I have my suspicions.”
Burns appeared in the dock last week, walking with the aid of a walking stick and denied knowing the will was a fraud before she sent it to Carol and Scott.
Both Carol and Scott gave evidence against her and told the court the signature was “100 percent” not their dad’s.
But Burns refuted this and said the signature was his and claimed she had never even seen the forged will before.
Instead she insisted it had been in Mr Hendry’s home for years because she had seen him “stick it in a cupboard with his other paperwork” some time in the years prior to 2020.
However when she was cross-examined by Fiscal Depute Alistair Miller she was unable to explain why the three false signatures on the fake will were all dated on the same day in 2021, if it had been laying in a cupboard for years before then.
Despite her denials, the court found Burns guilty, with Sheriff Colin Bissett branding her version of events “untenable”.
She is due to be sentenced next month, and Carol says she is hoping the court makes an example of her.
She added: “I know she probably won’t go to jail but for the upset and trauma she has caused our family through spite and greed, she deserves everything she gets.”
