The story of Baroness Susan de Stempel has taken another twist with trustees searching for creditors as her estate is wound up. REBECCA GILBERT looks at the background to the aristocrat's complicated life

TRUSTEES of the estate of Baroness Susan de Stempel, the aristocrat jailed for stealing her senile aunt's fortune, are calling on any remaining North Yorkshire creditors to make their claims before the estate is wound up.

The baroness, whose family originates from Wilberfoss, and who lived at Markington Hall, near Ripon, during her childhood, was jailed for seven years in 1990 for stealing from her aunt, the late Lady Illingworth, and forging a will.

Baroness de Stempel served her sentence at Askham Grange Prison, near York.

The baroness's former husband, Baron Michael de Stempel, and two of her children, Sophia and Marcus Wilberforce, were also jailed for their part in the conspiracy to steal £500,000 from Lady Illingworth, who was a direct descendant of slave trade abolitionist William Wilberforce.

In 1989, the baroness was acquitted of murdering her former husband, Simon Dale.

The baroness was made bankrupt in 1991 and her estate put into the hands of trustees Griffins, a London insolvency practitioners.

It included the proceeds from the sale of her manor house in Shropshire, her flat in Spain and the furniture and contents of her home. It also included the contents of several trust funds she inherited.

Griffins yesterday advertised in the Evening Press for any remaining creditors to come forward and make their claims as the firm hopes to soon wind up the estate after a decade of legal wrangling.

Although the baroness herself, who is now believed to live in Wales, was released from bankruptcy in 1993, the bankruptcy estate is put into a trust fund and can last for a lifetime.

Stephen Hunt, a partner at Griffins, said the main creditor in this case is the Lady Illingworth estate, which made a claim for 30 gold bars worth £12 million, which mysteriously disappeared in the 1960s.

He said the bars were sent to England for safekeeping by a French family who died in the Second World War.

He said: "Her (the baroness's) aunt owned a house in Grosvenor Square, London, and when she sold the house the removers noticed that, in addition to much fine art and jewellery, was a small pile of approximately 30 gold bars.

"All these items were sent to a local bank and were never seen again.

"The baroness did empty the vault of the other items but has protested her innocence in relation to the theft of the gold bars.

"We had great difficulty deciding how we should deal with the claim.

"We decided to take a percentage of the potential claim of £12 million and knocked it down to £450,000."

Mr Hunt said the baroness's daughter, Sophia Georgina Wilberforce, also sued the estate, alleging that her mother committed a breach of trust law in 1967 by replacing money in a £4,000 trust with an asset when she was four years old. She sued the estate for £180,000 compensation.

Mr Hunt added: "It got to the stage where it would have absorbed the funds of the estate fighting with the daughter so we eventually agreed to pay costs."

He said Sophia Wilberforce had received £7,000 and the estate had paid her legal costs, which he believed to be in the region of £50,000.

Sophia Wilberforce's solicitors declined to comment.

Updated: 09:38 Saturday, April 28, 2001