Gardaí in Co Wexford have arrested three people for questioning and have interviewed a fourth person as part of an investigation into the alleged forgery of a will relating to a large farm in the county worth several million euro.
Officers launched the investigation after receiving information in the past two months that a will which bequeathed a large estate including a 160-acre farm, a house and livestock to a middle-aged man in the south of the county, may have been forged.
Supt Tom Saunderson of New Ross Garda station is heading the investigation. He told The Irish Times yesterday that gardaí had arrested three people and interviewed a fourth as part of the inquiry into the allegations.
Detectives arrested one man in his late 50s or early 60s, who is understood to be one of the executors of the will, at his home in the New Ross area on Thursday under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act and brought him to New Ross for questioning.
Yesterday morning, a man in his early 50s, who is alleged to have been the beneficiary, and his wife were arrested at their home and brought to New Ross Garda station for questioning.
Gardaí also interviewed a third man in his early 60s and is understood to be another executor of the will, and he was spoken to at length by gardaí in an effort to establish how the will at the centre of the allegations came into being.
The couple arrested yesterday were released without charge late last night while the man arrested on Thursday had been released earlier. A file will now be prepared on the matter for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The investigation follows the death approximately 10 years ago of a farmer in the New Ross area and the subsequent discovery of a will some years later bequeathing his entire estate to another man now at the centre of the inquiry.
