A Berkshire Will-writer has been jailed for fraud after telling clients that changes in the Law had invalidated their Wills.

Through the Will-writing firm called Legacy & Law, run by Walter Ventriglia, letters were sent out to clients warning them of a change in the Law. The letter offered to remedy their Wills at a price of £30 to £60. There were no such changes in the Law that invalidated the Wills.

The fraudulent letters were passed to Bracknell Forest Council's Trading Standards Office and also to the local Probate Office, both of whom wrote to Ventriglia warning him to stop. But he did not; in fact he issued a further series of letters making false claims.

Bracknell Forest brought a fraud prosecution against him in July this year, but by that time he was thought to have defrauded up to 130 clients, mostly in south-east England.

Ventriglia also operated a Will storage business called UK Will Register. The company's promotional literature claimed it stored clients' documents in a secure facility in London. In fact, trading standards officers found the Wills stored in an airing cupboard at his home in Sandhurst.

At Reading Crown Court in August he was jailed for fourteen months