A FORENSIC handwriting expert has told a jury there was 'moderate support' that a note purporting to evidence a farmer’s desire to hand over his land to a neighbour was written by herself.

Janice Margaret Johnson, 66, of Fenwick Farm in Thwaites, near Millom, is on trial at Preston Crown Court faced with five counts of fraud by false representation.

The alleged offences are against the late John Harper, of Scrithwaite Farm, Broughton Mills, between March 2016 and January 2019.

It is alleged by prosecutor Sarah Magill that the defendant 'contrived a fraud designed to ensure that she and she alone inherited the farm and the farm house in its entirety, enabling her to continue going about her farming business.'

A jury heard that David Browne, a forensic document officer with over 40 years of experience, used specialist examination techniques to look at the ink, using lighting conditions to tell if the same pen had been used to write different documents.

Mrs Magill told the jury when opening the case that the first letter was written by the defendant to Mrs Allis-Smith, who helped Mr Harper after he fell ill, one year after his death.

Also included in the envelope was a letter of wishes dated one month before it was supposed to have been written.

Mr Browne said: “This letter was written in block capital letters. Very few people nowadays write in this way.

“There is very strong support for the suggestion that the same handwriting was used in the note enclosed in the envelope and a strong proposition that it was the same pen.”

The court heard more letters were written by the defendant that claimed Mr Harper wanted to leave his house, buildings and land to her, as well as another which showed Johnson acquiring dates to prove witnesses had been with Mr Harper when he made his will, the prosecution say.

In another letter it is alleged she added an annotation between the existing lines of her late father’s old diary stating that her father and a deceased friend went to the farm to witness the will, the court heard.  

Prosecutors said in a final desperate attempt to win the farm, she wrote a letter to herself pretending to be her late father writing to her.

Prosecutor Sarah Magill summarised to jurors when opening the case on Tuesday that the defendant was the person who benefited from this fraud; was the person with the motivation to keep persisting with the fraud; was the person who relied upon documents, knowing that they were or might be forged, and that because of this they could be certain she made some of them herself.

The trial continues.