The Gazette 1973

indicates that the certificate is required "to close a sale next week". This is particularly the case in connection with sales to the Land Commission. One of the first Requisitions of the Land Commissioner Examiner is for a letter from this Office that there are no outstanding charges for Death Duties affecting the lands being sold. In a surprisingly large number of cases, this letter is applied for with the statement that the case is before the Examiner for final allocation "next week". In all these cases it is clear that a certificate i,s required from the start but the application for the certificate is not made in sufficient time to have the matter properly investigated. We do our best to meet the deadline in these cases but consider it unfair, in our present circum- stances, that other applications must be left unanswered in order to facilitate the applicants who do not apply in good time. I would be grateful if you could give some publicity in your Gazette, or otherwise, to this problem, to ensure that, in those cases in which the Solicitor having carriage must be aware that a certi- ficate will be required before closing a sale or before Final Allocation, the application for the certificate will not be postponed until the eleventh hour.

Estate Duty Office during the month or six weeks which elapse between the date of contract and completion of a sale. The change effected by Section 32 of the Finance Act 1971 will necessitate a very considerable alteration in conveyancing practice and I fear will be the cause of considerable delay. Solicitors will be called upon to give undertakings to obtain certificates of discharge of death duties which they are naturally reluctant to do as these undertakings add to the administrative bur- den in solicitors' offices. The Council would again press the Revenue Com- missioners to restore the law to its condition previous to the enactment of the Finance Act 1971 even if they are not prepared to go the whole length of making estate duty a charge on all purchase monies both of real and personal property in exoneration of a pur- chaser for value. In considering changes of the Revenue Law the Council submit that account should be taken not alone of the interest to fhe Revenue but its effect upon the commercial community and purchasers and sales of property. The inconvenience and expense occasioned by change intended to protect the Revenue may be out- weighed by other factors of the kind mentioned above. The Council regret the enactment of Section 32 of the Finance Act 1971 and hope that the Commissioners will give this matter their further favourable considera- tion. After all legislation is intended to be in the interests of the general public and statutory enactments which complicate the law and place obstacles in the way of speedy completion of commercial transactions cannot achieve this purpose. The Council would appreciate the information as to the number of applications received for certificates of discharge from death duties during an average month and the time which will be taken to deal with such applications. We are aware that there is considerable delay in the Estate Duty Office at the present time due to shortage of staff and we are not optimistic that the change recently made and which has now been brought to the attention of the profession will not cause further delay. Yours sincerely, Eric A. Plunkett ing Mr. Raphael's Rolls-Royce by means of a forged letter of authority, knowing it to be forged. The Common Serjeant, Judge Mervyn Griffith-Jones, said he would pass sentence today. The jury returned after 4 hours to announce that it had found Mr. Alba-Teran guilty of the charge which he faced alone, but had failed to agree on the other two counts. The Judge then gave directions as to majority ver- dicts, and the jury retired again. It returned just over an hour later to give its decision. Miss Macintosh of Walton-on-Thames, and Mr. Alba-Teran, of Chelsea, both pleaded not guilty to all charges wheh the trial began on October 23rd. Mr. John Buzzard, prosecuting, said during the trial it seemed clear Mr. Raphael had made no will and that his estate—valued in court at £500,000—would go to his young widow, Penny Brahms. —Guardian, 15th November 1972 22

Yours sincerely,

M. K. O'Connor ( Assistant Secretary)

M. K. O'Connor, Esq., Assistant Secretary, Estate Duty Branch,

7th November 1972

Dear Mr. O'Connor, Thank you for your letter of November 30th. Reduced to its essentials it now appears from your letter that every case in which leasehold property is sold by a personal representative in the course of administration of an estate the purchaser must obtain before closing a certificate of discharge from death duties on the pro- perty purchased. This imposes a very serious burden on the solicitors' profession and I fear that these certifi- cates will not become readily available from the

Shilling Will is a forgery Miss Penny Brahms, the model, heard an Old Bailey jury rule yesterday that a will leaving her a shilling and four photographs of herself was a forgery. She was in court when the jury brought in verdicts of guilty on all the charges brought against Shelagh Macintosh (22) a teacher, and Eric Alba-Teran (51) an invest- ment banker.

Both were found to have forged the will of Miss Brahms's former husband, Mr. Clive Raphael, with intent to defraud Mr. Raphael, aged 31, who died in an air crash in France last year. Both were also found to have conspired together— and with a barrister, Mr Ronald Shulman—to pervert the course of justice by seeking through false affidavits in the High Court to prove Mr. Rapheal had made a will. Mr. Shulman, formerly of Westminster, was said during the trial to have fled to South America. Mr. Alba-Teran on his own was convicted of obtain-