Ealing Man's Sister Forced to Repay £2.6m Taken from Mother

She still inherits multimillion-pound estate despite misuse of funds

Sandra Thomas was found to have used her mother's money to fund holidays and dining out. Picture: Facebook

An Ealing man has succeeded in forcing his sister to return £2.6 million she and her husband took from their elderly mother’s accounts to fund luxury spending — including holidays, meals at The Ivy and a wedding at the Savoy — after a High Court judge found they had engaged in the “extensive and wholesale misuse” of the pensioner’s money.

But despite that ruling, the judge upheld the mother’s final will, meaning the sister will still inherit several west London properties and a substantial share of the multimillion-pound estate.

The case centres on the estate of Jeanne MacDougall, whose wealth came from a large property portfolio in Acton and Ealing, built up over decades by her late husband, developer Alec MacDougall. The family’s holdings included homes in Avenue Crescent, Berrymead Gardens, Stuart Road and Avenue Gardens — all familiar addresses in the local property market and now central to the dispute. The MacDougall family’s property holdings were renovated, managed or maintained by Mr MacDougall himself during his years working in the family business.

Mrs MacDougall’s son, Mr MacDougall, a 70-year-old builder based in Ealing, brought the action after discovering that his sister, Sandra Thomas, 65, and her husband Philip had been using their mother’s bank accounts “as if they were their own” while acting under a lasting power of attorney. The court heard that more than £2 million left Mrs MacDougall’s accounts between 2012 and 2020, with only a small fraction spent on her care or needs.

According to a report in the Times, Mrs Justice Nicola Rushton KC found that the couple had repeatedly drained the accounts, sold assets to generate more cash, and spent freely on themselves and their family. She described their conduct as driven by “greed”, noting that by the time of Mrs MacDougall’s death in 2020, “she had virtually no cash left”.

The judge also ruled that the couple had unduly influenced Mrs MacDougall into transferring three properties to them during her lifetime — assets worth around £1.6 million. These must now be restored to the estate, along with the £2.6 million in misused funds.

However, the court upheld Mrs MacDougall’s 2011 will, which left the bulk of her estate — including several of the west London properties — to her daughter. The judge rejected Mr MacDougall’s claim that his mother lacked mental capacity when she changed her will, or that she had been improperly influenced in the will-making process. Evidence showed she had a closer relationship with her daughter, and the judge accepted that the shift in her testamentary intentions was explainable.

The ruling means that while the daughter and her estranged husband must repay millions to the estate, they will still inherit significant assets. Meanwhile, the “residue” of the estate — previously expected to be worth almost nothing — will now be substantially increased by the restored funds and properties, with Mr MacDougall entitled to roughly half.