Fraudster Kathy Jackson ‘fit to be trustee of $30m will’

Barrister David Rofe was ‘acutely aware’ of her ‘controversial reputation’ when he appointed her co-executor of his estate.

Kathy Jackson and David Rofe in 2014. Picture: AAP

Convicted fraudster Kathy Jackson will be the trustee of barrister David Rofe’s $30m estate, after a judge ruled the Sydney silk was “acutely aware” of her “controversial reputation” when he appointed her co-executor in 2014.

Nick Llewellyn, the self-­described “virtual son” of the barrister, had challenged Ms Jackson’s position as co-executor, saying the former Health Services Union official should be barred from administering the estate because of her convictions for defrauding the union of $102,892 between 2003 and 2010.

NSW Supreme Court judge Geoff Lindsay, who presided over the six-week battle for Rofe’s fortune last year, published an addendum on Thursday dismissing Mr Llewellyn’s claim that Ms Jackson, who is poised to inherit up to $3m after she helped the ailing Rofe cobble together his final will, was not a “fit and proper person”.

“Her criminal conviction is not, of itself, an impediment to her performance of executorial duties. She is at liberty and able to attend to estate business. One does not have to be a saint to serve as an executor,” Justice Lindsay said.

“She has not been shown to have been dishonest in her dealings with the deceased, a man who was acutely aware of her controversial reputation. To decline to appoint her as a co-executor ... would be, in effect, to re-write the deceased’s will in a material respect.

“This, I refuse to do.”

Nick Llewellyn. Picture: Britta Campion

Philip Rofe, nephew of David Rofe. Picture: John Feder

Justice Lindsay ruled earlier this month that Rofe had knowledge of his actions and was not unduly influenced by others when he signed his final will in December 2014, despite his health being in serious decline after he had been diagnosed with dementia four years earlier.

Rofe’s estate was valued at $30m at the time of his death in July 2017, aged 85. He wrote seven wills and two amendments in the six years before his death.

Justice Lindsay said the 14 people involved in the case, which included a collection of Rofe’s old friends and relatives, had tended to coalesce into factions during the extraordinary battle over the rich barrister’s “bounty”.

The warring beneficiaries included Rofe’s carer and former partner Gregg Hele, who aligned with Ms Jackson, rival nephews James and Philip Rofe, and Mr Llewellyn and his confidant, Nick Illek, an “end-of-life specialist.”

Ms Jackson described Mr ­Llewellyn as a “blackmailing vulture” while in the witness box last September.

The estimated value of the ­estate is believed to have been whittled back by $5m or more because of taxes and legal costs.

While Justice Lindsay said he had “reservations” about each party’s conduct, he ultimately found the legal costs racked up during the case should be paid out of the late barrister’s estate.

The final will named Ms Jackson, whose “entitlements waxed and waned” throughout 2014, to receive a one-tenth share. The largest beneficiary is Mr Hele, who stands to receive up to $6m.

Ms Jackson could be forced to forfeit almost all her $3m windfall, with the HSU saying last week the union would try to claw back the debt she owes it.