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North Yorks farmer's collusion in battle over £2.3m will
A FARMER told a court he had offered more than £1m for part of a farm left to an animal charity in a disputed bequest.
Steven Dawson told the High Court in Leeds that the RSPCA had accepted his offer for 220 acres of the 287-acre Potto Farm near Northallerton, North Yorkshire.
He admitted that he had been helping the charity with the case concerning Leeds University lecturer Dr Christine Gill, 58.
Dr Gill, who was cut out of the 2.34m will, claims her late mother Joyce was not in sound mind when she left the farm to the animal charity.
If the RSPCA wins the hearing, Mr Dawson will stand to gain a chunk of the acreage.
He told the court: "If a farm comes up on your doorstep you are going to want to take it."
Burden
Dr Gill claims she had been given assurances she would inherit the farm and that she had bore an ever-increasing burden in helping run it, something the RSPCA disputes.
Mr Dawson admitted that he had helped the RSPCA's case in his evidence by making it seem like Dr Gill didn't do as much work on the farm as she claimed.
It also emerged that he had asked other neighbours in the farming community of the North Yorkshire Moors whether they too would give evidence for the RSPCA along the same lines.
The court heard that Mr Dawson claimed he had never seen Dr Gill or her husband, Andrew Baczkowski, working at Potto Carr and that most of the work was done by contractors.
But under cross-examination from Tracey Angus, representing Dr Gill, it was revealed he had been given access by the RSPCA's solicitors to invoices at Potto Carr Farm over a 10-year period so he could comment on what work the contractor had done on the farm.
Coerced
Married mother-of-one Dr Gill claims that her mother was coerced into making the will in 1993 by her husband John who had fallen out with the rest of his family.
Proceeding
sophie.hazan@ypn.co.uk
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Friday 25 May 2012
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