A gold-digging wife has been branded a liar for trying to land her late husband’s £600,000 fortune with a “ridiculous” forged will she claimed to have found in an empty Doritos packet.

Marsha Henderson married retired bus conductor-turned-lollipop man Newton Davies in 2004, when he was 76 and she was still in her 20s.

The marriage “came like a thunderbolt” to his friends and family.

Their union lasted nine years until his death in 2013 aged 85, when he left Ms Henderson £25,000 but the bulk of his £600,000 estate to his only daughter, Paulette Davies.

Ms Henderson challenged the division of the estate in 2015, claiming she had found a rival will in the attic of her late husband’s home in Harrow Road, Wembley.

But a judge has now ruled the document, which would have landed Ms Henderson a £550,000 windfall, was an obvious forgery, riddled with errors, and her story about finding it in a crisp packet was “ridiculous”.

Judge Nigel Gerald, sitting at the Mayor’s and City of London Court, accused her of “orchestrating a fraud” as he declared the second will invalid.

“It is Ms Henderson’s evidence that the November 2011 will was found in the loft of the deceased’s house, in a Doritos bag on the floor of the loft, in around March or April 2015,” said the judge.

“She says she knows nothing about how it came to be written or executed. All she knows is that it was found in a Doritos bag in the loft of the house in the spring of 2015.

“There is no doubt, upon the evidence which I have heard, that Ms Henderson...came to court to lie.

“There is no doubt of any nature whatsoever that the November 2011 will is a simple, but rather poor quality, forgery.

“There is equally no doubt in my mind that it was forged by Ms Henderson.”

He said one “striking” error was the forged document refers to it being “her” last will rather than “his”.

“The deceased was a man and not a woman. In the circumstances of this case I do not regard this as a trifling or inconsequential defect”, the judge continued.

“It will obviously strike anybody as being somewhat eccentric to put an important document such as a will into a Doritos bag, but there are eccentric people in this world.

“So that, of itself, does not cause me to be disbelieving, although it does cause me to consider how a man in his early 80s, who according to a friend does not eat Doritos, would put this document into an empty Doritos bag and then put it in the loft.

“It is inherently unlikely that the deceased would go into the loft in November 2011, find an empty Doritos bag and put his will in it.

“There is eccentric and there is ridiculous - and this is ridiculous.”

The judge’s ruling means the original will, signed by Mr Davies in July 2011, stands, dividing up his mortgage-free £500,000 home and around £100,000 in cash.

His daughter from his first marriage, Ms Davies, will receive around £430,000, with £140,000 going to an old friend and £25,000 to Ms Henderson.

During the hearing, the court heard Mr Davies’ marriage to a woman 50 years younger than him had left his friends and family “in a state of shock.”

They also told of Ms Henderson’s “strange” story about discovering the second will in around March or April 2015.

In his ruling the judge also noted that the fake will was on A4 paper which was bigger than a Doritos packet.

“None of this makes too much sense. It is plain that Ms Henderson is lying,” he added.

He also said a handwriting expert had been called in to inspect the signature on the document, spotting signs of hesitation and correction and “a lack of natural fluidity”.

“There are many other strange features of the evidence, but those are the key features of the live evidence which demonstrate that Ms Henderson has orchestrated this fraud.”

Ms Henderson may now face further legal proceedings from Mr Davies’ daughter for more than £42,000 in rent at the Harrow home during the legal dispute.