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A brother has launched a bid to have his sister jailed amidst a feud over their father’s £100m fortune. Multimillionaire businesswoman Louise Reeves was left most of her tycoon father Kevin’s cash and property empire in his will.

But that will was overturned last year following a High Court trial when a judge found that the 36-year-old had “engineered” the making of the document, “pulling the wool over (her dad’s) eyes”, so he signed a will he didn’t understand.

Now she faces jail time if found guilty of contempt of court, after her brother Bill and his son Ryan McKinnon called for her to be sentenced for lying in court statements.

The Daily Mirror reports that in a contempt of court application, lawyers said Louise and her dad’s solicitor Daniel Curnock had “deliberately concealed” how well they knew each other before Kevin’s final will was made.

Judge Clare Ambrose, sitting at the High Court in London, refused a bid this week by Ms Reeves to delay proceedings. She ruled that the contempt application made against Ms Reeves and Mr Curnock should be considered as soon as possible.

She said: “The contempt application questions as to whether the statements made were made dishonestly and knowingly.

“There are potentially important questions as to the consequences of dishonest statements about the drawing up of wills and the appropriate sanction for solicitors and beneficiaries.”

Both Ms Reeves and Mr Curnock deny any dishonesty and are set to fight the contempt application.

Ms Reeves is also planning to take her case to the European Court of Human Rights, because she says her right to a fair hearing was violated at the original trial.

During the lengthy court battle, the court has heard that their dad started from humble beginnings having been left as an orphan child at a convent and quitting school aged just 12.

He then built up a vast personal fortune as a property tycoon and drove a Rolls Royce.

He had four children, but his final will left 80 percent of his fortune to his Toni and Guy-trained daughter, Louise, when he died, aged 71, in 2019. The rest was to go to her half-sister Lisa Murray.

Bill Reeves described his sister as “Jekyll and Hyde” and someone who “likes money and flash things”, before claiming she was behind the reason her dad cut him out of his will.

He told the court he enjoyed a great relationship with his dad, even offering to donate a lung to him when he was ill.

The 48-year-old said there was no reason why Kevin should leave him with so little in his last will made in 2014.

Ruling on the case in January this year, Mr Justice Michael Green rejected the claim that Ms Reeves had bullied her dad, but said she had “pulled the wool over his eyes” so he did not understand what was in the will.

The judge also found that, by telling the court they had not met until after the 2014 will was made, Ms Reeves and her dad’s solicitor Mr Curnock “deliberately sought to conceal the full extent of their interactions in relation to the preparation of the 2014 will”.

He said emails had been unearthed “that indicated communications between them in relation to the 2014 will and that they had met on 11 December 2013 when Mr Curnock attended the deceased’s offices for a meeting”.

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Overturning the 2014 will meant Mr Reeves’s fortune would be split under the terms of a will he made in 2012.

This will gave 10 percent shares to his estranged son Mark’s two children, Ryan and Ria McKinnon, with the remaining 80 percent split equally between Bill, Louise and Lisa.

Ms Reeves and Mr Curnock now face bids to have them jailed for contempt of court, with lawyers for Bill and Ryan arguing the case should be decided “sooner the better”.

“This case was about a lot of money, and it attracted a great deal of attention,” said Ryan’s barrister, Clifford Darton, at the High Court this week.

He added: “There has to be a deterrent, particularly on solicitors or parties seeking to make a significant commercial advantage to give false evidence on events leading up to the making of a will.

“There is a public interest in getting this matter resolved and resolved quickly.”

But Ms Reeves’s barrister Elizabeth Jones said she denied being dishonest about previous contact with Mr Curnock in order to conceal how the will was made.

And she said the contempt application should be delayed to allow Louise to take her complaints about the will case to the European Court of Human Rights first.
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