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A builder who refused to take payment from a pensioner for cleaning out his gutters has been left £500,000 in the man’s will - but now faces a bitter High Court battle.

Daniel Bryan Sharp says he struck up a six-year friendship with Ronald Butcher after the job at his bungalow. But Mr Butcher’s family and friends say Mr Sharp is lying and the will does not reflect his “true last wish”.

Mr Butcher, described as a “private and quiet man”, died at his home in Enfield in March 2013 at the age of 75. His body lay undiscovered for almost two months, the court heard.

Mr Sharp said he was shocked to discover Mr Butcher had left him the whole of his £500,000 fortune in a will drawn up two months before he died. The builder insists the document — which cuts Mr Butcher’s family out of any inheritance — is valid and was made of his own free will.

But the family want Judge Leslie Anderson QC to revoke the will in favour of an earlier one, which left his money to them.

The judge heard that by the time he died, his family consisted of his cousin, Joyce Gilkerson, and Evelyn Hutchins and Peter Rogers, the children of a close schoolfriend, who each regarded him as their “uncle Ron”.

These three were the equal beneficiaries of what they thought was Mr Butcher’s final will and testament, dated December 2011.

Araba Taylor, for Mrs Hutchins, who is heading the challenge to the 2013 will, told the judge it is accepted that Mr Butcher had the mental capacity to make a will when he signed the document and it is not a forgery. But she told the judge the “odd” nature of the bequest to Mr Sharp ought to “excite suspicion” that Mr Butcher did not fully comprehend or approve its contents.

Miss Taylor said Mr Sharp had to show that Mr Butcher understood the effect of the document, and that it was his “true last wish” to leave everything to the builder.

But Jennifer Seaman, for Mr Sharp, told the judge: “Mr Butcher was a lonely man who found a friend in Mr Sharp. Mr Butcher knew what he was doing when he made the 2013 will and what its effect would be. They had a shared interest in DIY and he liked to hear about Mr Sharp’s son. That is an explanation why he wanted to make the 2013 will.”

Mr Sharp, in the witness box, told the judge how his friendship with Mr Butcher began. He said: “When I first cleaned out his gutter he offered me a tenner or 20 quid for it, but I said no, I wouldn’t take it. It was a nothing job that took seconds.”

On learning of his windfall, he added: “I was shocked to be given something like that. It’s life-changing. Nobody gives you nothing in life.”

Mrs Hutchins, 53, of Southgate, in the witness box, said her family had been close to her “uncle” but agreed she and her brother had seen more of him before their mother died.

However she denied Miss Seaman’s accusation that they had “slowly lost contact” with him, saying: “One or other of us would go and see him every break we had. I had tried to pop in around March and had phoned.”

Her brother, Mr Rogers, 57, went further, claiming Mr Sharp was “lying” about being Mr Butcher’s friend. The hearing continues.