Taxi Driver Online

25-stone boozer ‘left £160,000 home to the only cabbie willing to ferry him to pubs’

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9257459/w ... ver-house/


Gary Mendez (Image: Champion News/The Sun)

A 25-STONE taxi passenger left his entire estate - including his £160,000 home - to the only cabbie willing to ferry him to pubs, a court heard.

Boozy beer lover Gary Mendez befriended private hire driver Dean Hughes when he became his regular driver after others refused to take him to pubs owing to his size.

The pair eventually became so close that Gary signed a will leaving him everything he had during a drinking session in a Wetherspoon's boozer.

But the will completely cut out Gary’s devoted long-term civil partner, Hermes Rodrigues, 45, sparking a bitter court battle.

And a judge has now ruled that Mr Rodriguez should keep the house in Eastbourne, East Sussex - and ordered the cabbie to pay £50,000 costs run up during the wrangle.

Mr Mendez met his partner on a cruise in 2001 when Mr Rodrigues was working as a steward and persuaded him to give up his life at sea

Mr Rodrigues told the court his civil partner was a "very generous and caring man" who he had "fallen in love with" - but drank heavily.

Mr Rodrigues told the court: "He told me that it would always be my home whatever happened, even if our relationship broke down.

"I thought we would be together for a very long time. It never occurred to me that he would be gone at such a young age."

WETHERSPOONS DEAL

Three years before his death in hospital in May 2016, Mr Mendez made a will, leaving everything he had to Mr Rodrigues.

But Mr Rodrigues said he was told by taxi driver Dean Hughes that there was a new will two days after his partner’s death aged 57 in 2016.

The court heard Mr Hughes discussed the details of the will over the phone before taking the document for tipsy Gary to sign in the pub.

Judge David Eaton Turner declared the will invalid after it was contested by Mr Rodriguez at Central London County Court last week.

The judge said steam railway enthusiast Mr Mendez was probably drunk when he signed over the house at The George Hotel, in Hailsham, in February 2016.

His judgement said: "I have great doubts whether Gary had a proper understanding of the contents and effect of the 2016 will.

"It must be likely that the pint on the table was not his first drink of the day.

"In my judgment, Gary, by this time, no longer had a balanced view of the claims and in particular had lost sight of his previous promise to leave the house to Hermes.”

Married dad-of-four Mr Hughes now faces a crushing court bill, estimated at over £50,000.

The judge ordered that the house be transferred to Mr Rodrigues and ordered Mr Hughes to pick up 85 per cent of the lawyers' bills in the case.


PHD Dean Hughes (Image: Champion News/The Sun)

Can't really argue with the Judge's findings.

If the fella really wanted to leave his estate to the driver then why not pop down to a local solicitor to draw up a proper legal agreement with genuine independent witnesses.

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IDFIMH

This article about an earlier hearing certainly makes it sound more like a scam

Cabbie ‘forced stroke victim to rewrite will over pint in the pub’

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/c ... 84606.html

A taxi driver who claims he was left a friend’s house in a will drawn up over a pint at a Wetherspoon pub has been accused of “taking advantage” of the vulnerable man, a court heard.

Dean Hughes, 35, claims stroke victim Gary Mendez wanted to leave him “everything” and put this in writing just weeks before his death in May 2016.

However Mr Mendez’s long-term boyfriend, Hermes Rodrigues, has accused Mr Hughes of being a “bare-faced liar” who may even have forged the new will.

Central London county court heard the taxi driver claims to have driven Mr Mendez, 57, to the pub at the George Hotel in Hailsham, East Sussex, in February 2016, and brought with him two sets of blank will documents. He ordered a pint of bitter for Mr Mendez and a coke for himself at the meeting.

Barrister Julian Reed, for Mr Rodrigues, questioned whether the meeting actually took place and accused the taxi driver of putting Mr Mendez under pressure to leave him the property.

“He was drinking so much he became rather a local joke, people taking advantage of him, and you were one of those... you were trying to take advantage of a vulnerable man for your personal gain,” he said.

But Mr Hughes, a married father-of-four from Eastbourne, insisted they were friends, adding: “I have taken advantage of no-one in my life.”

Mr Mendez had been in a relationship with Mr Rodrigues, 44, since 2001 and first wrote a will in 2013 after a stroke, leaving his partner his £160,000 home in Eastbourne.

But after his death Mr Hughes produced a new will and is accused of ordering Mr Rodrigues out of the home — a claim he denies.

Questioning Mr Hughes, Mr Reed said: “You thought you could get a house from under Mr Rodrigues’s nose... you have engaged in a web of deceit to do that.”

Mr Hughes rejected claims Mr Mendez lacked the capacity to make a new will, and denied the signature on the will was a “poor stab at forgery”.

In response, Mr Rodrigues rejected claims that he was a “freeloader”. A ruling is expected later.

he looks a bit of a wideboy in his photo.

the thing I can't get over is a house in Sussex worth only £160,000

You couldn't buy a flat round here for that little and Lincolnshire is not a millionaires playground like Sussex is

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