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Ilona Zimon

A cleaner who faked her landlord's will to make herself the sole beneficiary of his £125,000 estate was last night behind bars.

Ilona Zimon, of Pennywell Drive, Cutteslowe, Oxford, faked Dusan Duvnjak's will to eliminate his two children and make herself the only heir to his three houses, car and other belongings.

The 50-year-old also changed all references to herself in the will as Mr Duvnjak's "beloved partner" and ordered her name should be the only one included on his headstone.

Mr Duvnjak's family became suspicious after Zimon faxed them a copy of the will shortly after his death in January 2006 showing his two children - Marko, 23, and Mara, 25 - had been disinherited.

They employed a handwriting expert who examined the document and found Mr Duvnjak's signature was an exact copy of the one on the original will - something that is impossible to recreate naturally and could only be done by photocopying or tracing.

Mr Duvnjak's ex-wife Diane, the mother of his two children, said her former husband's houses had been worth about £650,000 but were heavily mortgaged.

The 51-year-old, of Shelford Place, Headington, said it had been a battle to prove the will was a fake.

She said: "It is an embarrassment to have to go through all of this. It is very personal.

David Duvnjak, top, with the forged will and, bottom, his brother Dusan

"It is a disbelief that somebody would take a person that is so vulnerable and say that they cared for him and yet hurt the people that he actually cared most about.

"People do make ad-hoc wills, but this was a document of such appalling taste that it actually made some members of the family feel like they were going to vomit."

Builder and decorator Mr Duvnjak, known as Denis, died in January 2006 from a fall after a long battle with alcoholism.

His brother David, 62, of Banbury Road, Oxford, added he believed Zimon had been planning the will forgery for years.

He said: "I thought that was the only reason she was living with him. I am pleased justice has been done."

Zimon had denied forgery but was convicted by a jury after a trial at Oxford Crown Court last month.

Alistair Grainger, defending, said Zimon had no previous convictions and was believed by many of her employers to be trustworthy.

Sentencing her to 12 months' jail, Judge Patrick Eccles said: "What is plain is that the family were deeply distressed at having their names taken off the headstone.

"The court has to take a serious view of this offence because a will is a public document in which the public have to have trust.

"You photocopied the signature on the original will. You were due to inherit 20 per cent but plainly were not satisfied.

"You were not under financial or psychological pressure and therefore, based on the jury's verdict, I must find that you did it out of greed."

The jury cleared Zimon's co-accused, Soossapillai Ramesh, 44, of Peckham Rye, London, of forging a will.

Speaking after the case, Dc Mark Lacey said it was the first case involving a forged will that anyone at Oxford CID could remember.

He said: "I think the sentence shows that the courts have taken attempts to forge wills very seriously."

6:28am Tuesday 20th May 2008

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