A MAN accused of stealing £81,000 from his dead brother's estate claims it disappeared when he fell ill in Thailand, a court was told.

And James Astley denied using the missing cash for business purposes.

Astley, 60, said his brother and sister's share of the inheritance was lost when he collapsed on holiday.

The two brothers and a sister were due to split the £120,000 estate between them after the death of their brother William.

Astley, of Bury Fold Lane, Darwen, is on trial at Bolton Crown Court accused of stealing £81,000. He denies the offence.

He told police that he had taken the money to Thailand and carried it around in a suitcase.

Eight days into the trip he claimed he fell ill and collapsed. He was taken by taxi to a hospital and when he recovered he said the money had gone.

He said he had every intention of returning to the UK with the cash and had no intention to defraud anyone.

The court heard that within one day of his brother's death, Astley swore an oath to obtain letters of administration to take control of his estate.

Astley took his £30,000 share and went on three foreign trips to Thailand and the Dominican Republic.

Astley claimed that there had been ill feeling in the family over how to handle the estate of his divorced brother, William, who had no children and died without making a will.

Under the rules of intestacy, the proceeds of William Astley's estate should have been shared out equally between his sister, Patricia Nixon, and the two brothers, James and Kevan Astley.

William Astley was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in early 1998. Doctors later gave him six months to live.

In the final stages of his illness, William was cared for by his brother Kevan and wife June at their home in Westhoughton, Bolton.

Because of his illness, his sister and Kevan's wife were given Power of Attorney to administer his affairs in the last months of his life.

James Astley was dissatisfied with the way his brother's affairs were being handled and called for a case conference.

On December 22, 1998, William died and the next day James swore an oath to obtain letters of administration of William's estate.

The proceeds of the house sale, shareholding and pension, amounted to £120,000 but, because William had died without making a will, the rules of intestacy meant that the cash should be shared out equally between the surviving brothers and sister.

During 1999, Astley made a series of withdrawals to fund his trips to Thailand.

He took a total of £30,000 which still left enough money to pay Patricia and Kevan.

During a period between January 21 and March 2, 2000, Astley withdrew a total of £89,950 in a series of transactions from banks in the Bury, Blackburn and Farnworth areas.

He agreed he had business interests in Halliwell Taxis, now run by his son, a coach firm, a detective agency and helped operate a company which chaperoned young actors.

He had also previously owned a butcher's shop and a chip-shop.

Astley said he had gone on holiday to try and relax from the stress he was under but denied the holiday was used for business purposes.

But he admitted that he had visited the Dominican Republic twice within two months and during the second trip he looked at the possibility of opening a jeep hire business on behalf of his son.

He then booked a trip to Thailand and allegedly took the money with him in a suitcase.

In police interviews, Astley said there had been ill-feeling between himself and the rest of the family over his difficulty in administering the estate.

He claimed he just snapped and took the money to Thailand where he carried the case about with him.

Astley failed to report the loss either to the police or the British Embassy.

(Proceeding)