Succession Act 1965 section 23

Liability of person fraudulently obtaining or retaining estate of deceased

Section 23 deals with the personal liability of anyone who fraudulently obtains, receives or holds part of a deceased person's estate, or who secures the release of a debt owed to the estate without providing full valuable consideration.

• A person who obtains part of a deceased's estate by fraud, or without paying its full value, can be treated as if they were an executor — making them personally liable for that amount.
• Their liability extends to the value of whatever estate they received or the value of any debt or liability they had released.
• They may deduct any genuine debt owed to them by the deceased at the time of death (provided it was for valuable consideration and not tainted by fraud), and any payments they made that a personal representative could properly have made.
• "Full valuable consideration" means consideration that equals or closely approximates the value of what is given in return — in other words, a fair market price.

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