Suprise windfall for relatives of one Irish woman as estates worth thousands lie unclaimed in Britain

Finders International said relatives and heirs have just 12 years to claim an estate once it has been reported unclaimed to the British State. File picture. 

A deceased Irish woman’s estate in the UK; including a house worth more than €400,000 (£350,000), nearly went unclaimed if not for the diligent work of 'heir hunters' handling more and more cases of Irish people dying without a will in Britain.

Sheila Lancaster, nee McCaffrey, born in Clones, Co Monaghan in 1928, died in 2015 in a nursing home in Essex, England aged 92, with no will and no known next of kin.