'Good neigbour' must pay back gift

A "good neighbour" who was given nearly £300,000 by the pensioner she helped in the last year of his life has been ordered to pay it all back by the appeal court.

Susan Osborn, who lived in the same road as Dennis Pritler, in Loughton, Essex, looked after him after finding Mr Pritler "clearly in distress" outside the local Safeway supermarket.

On Thursday, the appeal court said that although Mr Pritler had offered Mrs Osborn "his savings", he had not known the amount.

The court heard that Mrs Osborn had helped prepare two meals a day for Mr Pritler, paid his bills and bought him clothes.

'Said nothing'

Later, Mr Pritler signed a mandate authorising Mrs Osborn to draw on his current account to pay bills.

Mr Pritler, a bachelor and retired teacher, first offered Mrs Osborn gifts of money in 1998 but she ignored him.

After a period in hospital, Mr Pritler insisted he would cash almost all his lifetime investments and give the money to her.

Appeal court judge Sir Martin Nourse said: "During the period from the end of October 1998 to the beginning of September 1999 Mr Pritler returned to the question of making her a gift, but Mrs Osborn thought he was just being kind and politely said nothing."

Later after a further offer of money, Mrs Osborn acting on Mr Pritler's suggestion recovered his financial paperwork.

She enlisted the help of her son Lee Francis, a business consultant, who went through the papers and found Mr Pritler had £297,000.

'Substantial gift'

This money was transferred to Mrs Osborn's new account at Barclays in Ilford by four cheques in October 1999, all of which were written out by her.

Mr Pritler died the following year aged 73, and Margaret Hammond, his cousin, won a freezing order against Mrs Osborn at the High Court.

At a later trial Mr Justice Mackay ruled that Mr Pritler did intend to give his money to Mrs Osborn as a gift and it could not be set aside on the grounds that she unduly influenced him.

Mrs Hammond took the case to the Court of Appeal where on Thursday Sir Martin said: "Although Mr Pritler knew that he was making a gift to Mrs Osborn and must have known that it was a substantial gift, he was never told its size.

"It is impossible to say that the gift was made by Mr Pritler only after full, free and informed thought about it."