Couple stripped of £500,000 inheritance from 'spoilt princess' grandmother, 80, after judge rules she was not in her right mind when she signed the will Iris Jolly cut whole family out of her will two months before her death in 2010 She left everything she owned to her friends Richard and Pamela Phythian Relatives claimed will was invalid because she was unable to make decisions But the Phythians insisted she wanted to punish family for ignoring her High Court judge rules Mrs Jolly was not in her right mind at the time A couple who said they were left a £500,000 legacy by an 80-year old 'spoilt princess' because she was cross with her family have been stripped of the money by a High Court judge. Grieving widow Iris Jolly was said to have cut her relatives out of her will because she felt they were not taking enough notice of her in her final years. Mrs Jolly, the matriarch of a large family of 'Cockney costermongers' from Canning Town, east London, died in October 2010, less than two months after drawing up a will for the first time. Richard and Pamela Phythian have been stripped of their inheritance from Iris Jolly by a High Court judge The will left everything she owned to the 'dear friends' Richard Phythian and his wife Pamela. Mr Phythian, an ex-firefighter honoured with an MBE for his role as General Secretary of the National Association of Fire Officers, and his wife, said the old lady had every reason to be generous to them. As close friends who had done a great deal for her in her final years, they insisted Mrs Jolly was disgruntled with her relatives 'because "The Princess" wasn't the centre of attention' any more. But a judge ruled that the will is invalid because Mrs Jolly was not in her right mind when she signed it. The court earlier heard Mrs Jolly signed the will despite having an extensive network of living relatives. Her bequest to the Phythians included her most valuable asset - her £500,000 house in Yalding, Kent. Iris Jolly was not in her right mind when she signed the will in August 2010, a judge ruled Mr Phythian had 'made himself extremely useful' to Mrs Jolly in the three years after the death of her husband Alf in 2007. He drew up and witnessed her will himself as well as acting as her sole executor, the family's barrister Mark Blackett-Ord told the court. Mrs Jolly's niece, Lynda Turner, 51, argued that the 'difficult' and increasingly frail 80-year-old lacked the legal capacity to make a valid will and that she did not 'know and approve' of its contents. Mrs Turner, 51, insisted the whole family had remained close until the end of Mrs Jolly's life. 'I wouldn't be here today if I didn't know she was going to leave her estate to her family,' she said in a previous court appearance. Iris was almost like a second mother to myself and my brothers and sisters. Mr Blackett-Ord said Mrs Jolly - whose family members said was 'treated as a princess and indulged and always put first' - had gone into a 'catastrophic mental decline' following the death of her husband in 2007 and her twin brother John in June 2010. He described her state of mind at the time of the will as 'severe, even psychotic, depression or pathological bereavement reaction.' Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, for the Phythians, who are in their 70s and live near Sevenoaks, urged the judge to uphold the will - the only one Mrs Jolly ever made - as valid. He claimed that 'Iris's temper' and the 'tongue lashings that everyone received from Iris' had caused a rift between her and the rest of the family. 'By the time of Alf's death, she was no longer the centre of attention,' he said. 'The family support she depended on as "The Princess" wasn't available. The reality is that this unusual woman was carrying on at her death as she had carried on in life, wanting to be the centre of attention. Mr Blackett-Ord claimed: 'A lonely, housebound, childless widow was obviously open to suggestion.' Mr Phythian was not a man to miss an opportunity for making suggestions for his own advancement. Judge Viven Rose, ruling on the case, said: 'The Phythians' case is that Iris decided to leave all her property to them because she was not on good terms with her family and that they neglected her during her final years. Home: This house in Yalding, Kent made up the vast majority of the value of the disputed will Mr Phythian also recalled that Iris had told him about various angry rows that she had with John over the years. But she added: 'Mr Phythian would have to have very little understanding of human nature to interpret Iris' complaints about John's behaviour as meaning that Iris would be unperturbed by her twin brother's death.' The judge concluded that, when she signed the will, Mrs Jolly 'was suffering from an affective disorder brought about by her deep grief at the death of her brother, combined with her continuing fragile mental state arising from her advanced age, her physical frailty and her continuing grief for her husband. She said: 'I do not regard Mr Phythian as a dishonest person. I do not believe that he decided to befriend Iris with the cynical intention at the outset of eventually drawing up her will to his own benefit. 'I have concluded that the help he and Mrs Phythian gave Iris, as well as his rather judgmental and disapproving attitude towards her family, have generated in Mr Phythian's mind an inappropriate sense of entitlement to Iris' property. She was a person whose mental state was fragile throughout her adult life, particularly in response to bereavement. 'In my view, therefore, in August 2010 when the will was made, [the evidence] indicates that Iris was likely to be undergoing a severe grief reaction to John's death. Mrs Jolly's nieces Lynda Turner, left, and Pat Jolly, right, said the inheritance should be theirs Judge Rose continued: 'I have seen photographs taken at John's funeral which show a rather disheveled and very thin elderly woman being supported by family members. Mr Phythian challenged this evidence and said that, although Iris was physically frail, she was not vague or confused. On this point though I prefer the evidence of the Jolly family. The fact that I have found that Iris did not have mental capacity to make the will means that she did not know or approve of the contents of the will either. There is no evidence from anyone other than Mr Phythian that Iris ever read the will or had the will read out to her. Taking into account all the evidence I have heard about how the will came to be made and the relationship between Iris and her family, on one hand, and the relationship between Iris and the Phythians on the other hand, I am sure that Iris could not have known or approved the contents of her will. 'The contested will is invalid on two grounds,' the judge concluded, stripping the Phythians of their inheritance and declaring that Mrs Jolly died intestate. The money will now pass to Mrs Jolly's next of kin.