A FAMILY has been “torn apart” by a High Court battle over the inheritance of a grandmother’s Oxford estate.

On Tuesday, 60-year-old Georgina Leigh was told by a judge that she must repay money she banked from selling her mother’s home in Wolvercote.

Mrs Leigh, who was described as “controlling” during the case, removed her 85-year-old mother Joyce Smith from her home after Boxing Day in 2009 “contrary to her wishes”, and without informing her family and friends.

This included Mrs Smith’s grandchildren – the claimants in in the court case – Lisa Martin, 35, from Derby, and Paul Kicks, 36, from Carterton.

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Mrs Smith moved to Kent with Mrs Leigh before being put in a care home shortly afterwards.

The rest of the family was not told Mrs Smith had died in December 2011 so could not attend her funeral, the High Court heard.

Mrs Smith’s son-in-law Barry Kicks, father of Mrs Martin and Paul Kicks, said the case had torn the family apart. Mr Kicks was married to Mrs Smith’s daughter Norma, who died in 2004.

The 65-year-old widower said: “Joyce didn’t get to spend time with her family and my children didn’t get to spend valuable time with their grandmother. Not only have my children lost their mother and their grandmother, they’ve also lost an aunt.”

At the High Court hearing, the judge heard how in April 2010, Mrs Leigh and husband Desmond sold Mrs Smith’s Wolvercote home for £293,000, which was paid into their joint bank account.

Mrs Leigh claimed this was “a gift from her mother”.

But Judge Stephen Morris QC ruled Mrs Leigh would have to repay the £293,000 that she “procured by her undue influence” over her mother back into Mrs Smith’s estate. Mrs Martin and Paul Kicks are entitled to 25 per cent between them.

Mrs Leigh will remain the estate’s main beneficiary.

Speaking after the case, Barry Kicks said: “It’s never been about the money. It was really about getting justice for my children, my late wife and my mother-in-law. Our version of events has been vindicated.

Mr Kicks, who lives in Garsington, said: “There’s no doubt that she loved Joyce, but she loved her husband more. She made her choice and she’s going to have to live with it for the rest of her life.”

During the hearing, Judge Morris said Mrs Leigh was “dominated by her husband” in moving her mother to Kent against her will, and subsequently selling her mother’s house.