A RETIRED judge and her husband who admitted forging a will ended up living in the dead man's house after stealing a relative's cash to do up the property.

Ex-solicitor Margaret Hampshire, 69, and her builder husband 67-year-old Alan Hampshire pleaded guilty to forging the will of Martin Blanche, who died in 2007.

The couple had been part-way through a trial at Nottingham Crown Court before changing their pleas and admitting a total of six offences on Wednesday.

A series of other charges against the Hampshires of Church Road in Wickham Bishops, near Witham, Essex, was ordered to lie on file.

Nottinghamshire Police said Mr Blanche, who had lived alone, was thought to be unable to read or write and those who knew him believed it unlikely he would ever have written a will.

Mrs Hampshire, a former tribunal judge with experience in probate, falsely declared Mr Blanche's will was a true document.

She then transferred his estate, including two cottages in Rolleston, near Newark in Nottinghamshire, to that of her cousin Josephine Burroughs - herself a relative of Mr Blanche.

Mrs Hampshire had power of attorney for Ms Burroughs, and admitted fraud in dishonestly exceeding that position by transferring the property in Rolleston to her daughter.

In addition, she admitted making a forged document to avoid inheritance tax.

The couple then knocked the two neighbouring cottages through, and moved from Essex into the now extended single house in the Nottinghamshire village in 2016.

Mr Hampshire also admitted stealing £23,176 from Ms Burroughs during 2012, with detectives establishing the majority of the cash was used to renovate the cottages.

The offences happened while Mrs Hampshire was still a practising judge.

Ms Burroughs never knew the will had been forged and she died in January 2014.

The police then got involved and arrested the Hampshires in September that year.

In court, Mrs Hampshire pleaded guilty to fraud and two counts of forgery, while her husband admitted one charge of forgery and two matters of theft.

A Nottinghamshire Police spokesman said: "Their dishonesty unravelled after a complex police investigation undertaken by the fraud department, which included handwriting analysis by an expert, financial investigation and computer data analysis.

"The Hampshires denied the offences. However, they changed their pleas to guilty and are due to be sentenced on 20 December."